


Gerneelia ~ A Fairy Tail Story

by HelloInternet



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-09-08
Packaged: 2018-10-18 15:27:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 26,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10619781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelloInternet/pseuds/HelloInternet
Summary: Lucy Heartfelia, Wendy Marvell, and Levy Mcgarden have been left behind in the midst of time, to defend and care for themselves, on an island that goes by the name of Gerneelia. All of them have a story of how they got to the island, and they've told one another a thousand times. Lucy, Levy, and Wendy are starting to get bored with their lives. Nothing new is ever happening, so why should they have any concern about anything except accidentally falling into the hot springs or developing a rash from rolling around in the grass? But then a boat rises from over the horizon. It's sails are marked with a single red emblem. What does this mean?...and why are they looking for a lost princess?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Konichiwa everyone!
> 
> This is my very first fanfic on this website, and I will try to put as much effort into it as I can. But that's it for now. Skip the author's note and read.
> 
> Go ahead, READ
> 
> ~ HelloInternet

As soon as her head hit the rock, Lucy Heartfelia was bound to forget everything she knew. 

She was to forget her family and how they loved her. She was to forget the boats crashing in the dark waves on the port. She was to forget her best friend's smile as they laughed together. She was to forget her life. How she acted. Who she was. 

But no one forgot anything, or they would not have even cared about the missing princess who disappeared that day. 

~~~~~~~

Levy Mcgarden raced across the shoreline to safety with a little blue-haired girl bundled up in her arms. The places between her toes were filled with sand from running across the beach for so long. The explosion had released a whole lot of fear in her little body, so she was sent flying with adrenaline. Nothing was going to stop her. Grandine said to run, so she did. And she was. To safety.

Levy ran with baby Wendy into the forest so she wouldn't be spotted. 

"Please don't harm me Lord Zeref!" She pleaded as she climbed up the rocks that lead to a cave. 'Why is everything so scary?' She asked herself. Just this morning Levy had been out in the fields planting seed with her Mom. She stumbled up the rocks in a hurry, jerking around Wendy causing her to start crying. "Sshh!" Levy stroked the baby girl's head. "It's okay! I'm here with you." Wendy calmed down a bit as Levy ducked into the dark cave. "Remember? I'm your babysitter and I promised your Mom that I'm going to take care of you no matter what!" 

Wendy stopped crying and stared at Levy emotionless as Levy sat down on a rock. She rocked Wendy in her arms, knowing that she was her priority now. She  _had_ to take care of Wendy and guard her with her life. As soon as Levy took a look around, she knew something wasn't right. It smelled of weirdly scented strawberries in the cave, which wasn't natural. So Levy got up and leaned against a wall, becoming more and more aware of her surroundings. It was about fifteen minutes later that she finally heard a moan come from behind the same rock she was sitting on. 

To scared to check, Levy stayed put. What if it was a ferocious animal that no one could protect her from? Levy shook at the thought of it. But then her mother's words kicked in. Every night before bed she would say to Levy, "You never know what's around the corner if you never check Lev. It could bring new beginnings, new opportunities. You can't be scared of it though because all things happen for a specific reason. You've got to check, and when you do, if it's bad, you can always come back to me to protect you sweet child. I love you." Levy's eyes threatened to leak, but she held back her tears and slowly walked over to the rock. 

Holding her breath, Levy checked.

A girl with blonde hair was sprawled out on the ground of the cave, sleeping. Levy sighed, relieved. It was another girl, just like herself. Levy wondered where she came from because she had never seen this weird girl in the village. What were the clothes she was wearing anyway? They were extravagant and flowed nicely. This girl was unlike any ordinary village girl that Levy had seen. Where she came from, Levy knew not. But what she did know is that she couldn't just leave her there. 

~~~~~~~~

As every passing day went by, the girls grew older and older. They discovered knew things and went knew places. But they couldn't explain when the boat pulled itself to shore, releasing the people on it.


	2. Over the Horizon

Lucy tumbled through the leaves, scaring all of the bugs off of them. She was in a hurry to get past the barrier, to safety. God, why hadn't she listened to Levy? Lucy ran through the jungle to safety, breathing hard. Then finally, she ran past the barrier, and collapsed on the ground, meanwhile making sure the valuable cloth in her hands was safe. The black, shiny beast behind her scoffed, then turned around and started to walk back.

Lucy felt like her lungs were going to fly out of her body. She laid on the ground staring up at the blue sky. And then, Lucy got up, using her weak limbs to walk her back to the Flower-house, thankful that she wasn't the Darkle's lunch. 

"Lev! I'm back!" Lucy yelled up to the balcony of the Flower-house. She continued to the vine ladder and climbed up into the circle-shaped tree-house. As she climbed up, Lucy never noticed the dark stare Levy was giving her at the top, so when she climbed up into the Flower-house, Lucy was surprised. She shrieked as she noticed Levy, and went back down a vine. "What the heck Levy?!" Lucy gave Levy a confused look. Levy stepped back, with her arms crossed, and allowed Lucy to come inside. 

"You went past the barrier, right?" Levy questioned with anger in her voice, the answer spinning around in her mind like a tornado. "Nope." Lucy crossed the room and set the cloth sack onto the wobbly table. Levy got even more filled with anger. "You did, didn't you." She replied for Lucy. Lucy didn't say anything until she had unwoven the white cloth. "Lev, come here." Levy scuffed her feet as she walked over to Lucy. "What." Levy said, slowly dropping the subject. In Lucy's hands were a pile of blackberries. 

"No way." Levy said in disbelief. "Are those...blackberries?"

Lucy nodded. "Yup. For dinner." Blackberries were usually never found on the island. If you managed to even find one, you were very lucky. Levy smiled, then she remembered the previous conversation. "Just don't go across the barrier, ok?" Levy said. "Ok, ok." Lucy replied, then left Levy to dinner preparations while she laid on her hammock to rest. 

"Have you seen Wendy?" Lucy asked, Wendy just now coming to her mind. Levy shook her head. "Nope, but I'm sure she'll be back." Wendy wasn't as concerning to Levy as Lucy was. She sure wouldn't cross the barrier, in fact not even come within feet of it. Instead, Wendy would spend her days getting up at dawn and going out to explore with her tame white wildcat named Carla (Charle, er whatever you call her). They would often bring back new plants for Lucy to experiment with and sometimes even a few fish from the freshwater pond. So in a way, Levy could feel like Wendy was safe without knowing anything about her location. 

Lucy lay awake, wondering where in the world Wendy was. And where she went today. 

Levy set the pot of saltwater over the fire, purifying it to Wendy's liking. She stared at the heap of cloth clothes in the laundry basket. "I'm going to do the wash." Levy notified Lucy. "I'll be back in about an hour, and I expect you to take the water off of the fire when it's done. Lucy murmured an "Ok." and then fell into a deep sleep.

Meanwhile, Levy made her way down the Flower-house's steps, which were used rarely. She tried to see where she was going by tilting the basket sideways, but then as clumsy as Levy was, she tripped and fell down the stairs. "Gosh darn." Levy said, rubbing her head and picking up the clothing that had spilled out from the basket.  She continued on her way, and then finally made it to the freshwater pond. It had a clearing in the trees so that if you sat down at the exact right spot, you could see the ocean and the beach. This was why it was one of Levy's many favorite places on Gerneelia. She sat down, then sighed. Levy rook out a shirt from the pile and dunked it into the water before her. 

Levy swished it around, then rubbed it. She did this a few times, then looked up at the ocean to relax for a bit. Levy looked out into the ocean with a peaceful smile, the water reflecting in her glossy eyes. 

She looked back down and did another dress. She remembered the times her and her Mom would come down here to wash clothes. It was their secret place. Levy smiled sadly, then started hanging the wet clothes on a nearby vine. She thought it wasn't fair, how she had to remember everything and mope around sadly sometimes. Levy often envied Lucy and Wendy. They had forgotten everything. Lucy forgot 6 years worth of life. Wendy was just a baby. They never knew anything but that they wound up on an abandoned island. Levy had told them lots of stories about the Gerneelia village and how she had found Lucy. 

In fact, Levy was the one who took charge in everything. Even though she was a year younger than Lucy, she taught them everything they needed to know about survival and acted as the Mom figure. 

Levy's eyes drifted to the ocean once more, only, now she saw something different drifting over the horizon. It was a big wooden structure heading right for Gerneelia. Levy dropped her basket. She thought rapidly. 'We might be in trouble!'

~At the Flower-house~

Lucy had awoken from her slumber after about fifteen to twenty minutes. 

Now she lies in her hammock, twisting her gold pendant around in her fingers. Lucy often wondered what happened before she came here. Where was she from? Did she have any friends? What happened? 

At least she knew her name and age. 

Lucy's name was engraved in her pendant, and Levy had this weird way of collecting times as they went by. She said there were 365 days in a year, and that each day was one step closer to a year's end. They had been living alone on this island for 11 years straight, so Lucy knew that she was somewhere around the age of 17. 

Lucy continued to twist the pendant around in her hands, wondering more and more about those 6 years she had forgotten. What were they like? Who am I?

"LUCY!!"

Levy gasped for breath at the entryway of the Flower-house. Lucy turned all of her attention to Levy. "Yes?"

"There's something." Lucy headed over to Levy. "There's something what?"

Levy pointed behind her at the view of the ocean. "There. It's heading right for us." 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took so long to update minna! I forgot to mention that new chapters come out every week. Thanks for so many hits already! It's kinda amazing considering I'm a beginner. 
> 
> I would've updated sooner, but I accidentally exited out of the tab after I was about done writing the chapter. I rewrote it though...obviously. But anyway, thank you!
> 
> ~HelloInternet


	3. The King's Daughter

"Oi, captain! We've found it!" Erza yelled from the lookout. Natsu looked up at her and gave her a thumbs up from his place at the helm. The wooden boat they were on moved slowly and gently, gliding upon the waves below them. Natsu was bubbling with excitement now, because he could see the island, that piece of land where the missing princess had been all of these years. But then again, she probably was dead. 

Natsu and his team were set out on one mission: To find princess Lucy. After years of trying to the find the island, they had succeeded. It had never been recorded down because King Heartfelia had never recovered the recordings. Natsu thought back to that time. He was just a kid on this boat when his Dad spotted the island. The young princess was on the boat as well, because the King was taking her to Gerneelia for her 6th birthday. He was just learning how to be part of the crew, and that was his first time on a mission. 

When they had gotten to the the island, it was beautiful. They ventured through the trees, the castle greenhouse manager pointing out plants to the princess. She nodded her head at everything he said, soon getting bored. Natsu moved along with them, by his father's side. They trampled upon leaves, and Natsu picked at the hangnails on his fingers. It wasn't long before the smell of smoke filled the crew's noses. 

"Look, over there!" Natsu's dad, Igneel yelled. They could see fire when you looked through a clearing in the trees. They heard people screaming, and looked at one another. Igneel was the first to take off. “Hey Igneel! Wait!” One of the crewmates screamed. Natsu just stood there, completely unaware of what was happening. 

All he knew is that his father had disappeared from his side. That caused Natsu to feel very vulnerable. He watched his father race down the hill to save the villagers. 

But before he could get the people back to the crew, he was swallowed by the fire too. Fire reflected in Natsu’s dark eyes. He hated it, he hated the fire. Natsu didn’t cry, he just stood there, shocked. The crew shot shocked glances towards one another. Natsu was pushed along as the crew tried to get to safety, moping along. The moment they stopped to catch their breath, a ring of fire landed around them. A rustle in the leaves caused the crew to jump. 

“Goodbye.” A booming voice was heard. The princess shot into her father’s arms. King Heartfelia looked around furiously. The ring of fire was coming slowly towards them. “Wait!” One of the crewmates screamed. “Can we at least negotiate something?” Asked another. The fire stopped. Silence. “What is there to negotiate?” The voice was heard again. It didn’t exactly come from a certain direction. “If we let out the King and children in this group, you can have us. Please!” One of them pleaded. “Why would I let them go if I could just go ahead and punish you all?” The voice asked, now leaning more towards it’s side. 

“Please!” The crew pleaded. Natsu clung tightly to the bottom of his shirt. The voice sighed. “If all of you promise never to come on my land again, I suppose I will let the three of you go.” A part in the fire cleared and the princess came through the crowd to grab Natsu’s hand. “Come on!” She said, her face kinda tear-stained.

The King grabbed both of them and ran through the fire. That day, the whole crew risked their lives for the King and his daughter. And Natsu. The princess and King didn’t really think much of it, but as Natsu ran, he felt honored. 

He needed to live, for them. 

As they ran through the trees, they stumbled on a few rocks. Lucy ran behind the two of them, trying desperately to catch up. The boat was just a half mile away when the princess stumbled on a huge rock and fell to the ground. Because Natsu’s hand was engulfed in King Heartfelia’s, he couldn’t stop to help her. The princess fell and then blacked out. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t scream it out to King Heartfelia until it was already too late. 

Natsu gripped the helm, still mad at himself for not trying harder. It was most likely his fault that the princess was left stranded on the island. But now he was going to make up for it, by rescuing her. “We’ll probably be there by sunset!” Natsu yelled up to Erza. "Kay, cap'n!" she replied. As Natsu looked out at the island the ship was heading towards, he could of sworn he saw a light gray line of smoke going up into the sky. Natsu shook his head and blinked a few times, then looked back at the island. If it was there, he couldn't see it anymore. 

~3 hours later~

By the time the crew secured the boat to the island, it was nearly midnight. Captain Natsu called attention below deck, in the bar. The small, damp space was lit up by lanterns, so you could see some features of everyone's face. Natsu stood on a table, and the barmaid, Mirajane, called attention to him by gently banging a spoon on the side of a glass. Natsu cleared his throat and then started to speak. "We have tw-" "Hey cap'n, why are you standing on a table, yelling if there's only  6 of us here?” 

Interrupted Cana, swaying with a bottle, drunkenly. Natsu sighed. “So what. I’m the captain, so I can do whatever I want.” He said with pride. “So you could jump of the side of the boat if you wanted to?” Asked Gray with a smirk. 

“Well, yes, but I don’t intend to.” Natsu replied. “Let’s do it!” Yelled Gray, getting up. Mirajane tinged the glass harder. “For god sakes, sit down!” She yelled. Gray stumbled back into his chair. Everyone on that ship was scared of the barmaid. Sure, she was pretty and kind most of the time, but if you got on her bad side, you would most likely get kicked into a wall. “ANYWAY,” Natsu yelled above the others, “We need to figure out our plan for the island.” Silence. “So, um, any ideas?” 

Juvia raised her hand. “What, Juvia?” Gray glanced at Juvia and rolled his eyes. They all knew what her plan was going to be like. “Well, we could split into groups like Gray-sama and Juvia, then we could search for princess Heartfelia together!” Gray looked over at Juvia, smiling widely. He had to admit, it was pretty cute, but the plan was just no. Natsu glanced at Juvia and Gray. He had a silent conversation with Gray in a few seconds without an exchanging of words. “That’s okay Juvia.” He said. Honestly, Natsu didn’t care about the ‘Gruvia’ rumor that was spreading among his peers. In fact, he couldn’t care less about his second-in-command’s love life. It’s just that sometimes, you have to cut a friend some slack. 

Natsu told the crew about his plan instead. They would set out early that morning, and stay in two groups. Juvia, Cana, Gray, and Gajeel were on one team while Natsu, Mirajane, and Erza were on the other. If one needed the other’s help, they would blow on one of the whistles that the crew had brought over from Fiore. If the teams had found nothing, they would return to the ship by sunset. “Get some rest mates, you’re gonna need it tomorrow.” Natsu said, releasing the crew to their chambers. The girls walked down the stairs on the right of the big map on the wall, and the boys walked  down the left. 

Mirajane proceeded wiping the old, rickety bar tables down with soap and water. “Alright Mira, I’m going to bed.” Natsu said, then drifted up the ladder to get to the captain’s chamber’s from overhead, tired. Mira nodded and went back to cleaning. Natsu shut the trapdoor lightly, then walked over to the middle of the ship, where there was a lower part of the deck. The door to enter his chamber’s was directly under the raised deck where the helm was located. Natsu unlocked the door, stumbled inside, and lit a candle with one of the matches in his back pocket. He slowly walked over to his bed and swung off his white shirt, revealing the scars and bruises that lay underneath. He tumbled onto his bed face-first, and closed his eyes, awaiting the morning light of the next life-changing day.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thx for reading peeps!
> 
> ~HelloInternet


	4. The Other Side

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, I just wanted to add another chapter because why not....although, it's pretty short. 
> 
> ~HelloInternet

“What do you think that is?” Levy asked. It was nearing dark and the ship was coming closer and closer. Levy and Lucy stayed inside making dinner and doing daily chores like sweeping the floor with leaves tied to a stick and tidying up the Flower-house before Wendy got home. It was getting late, and Wendy still wasn’t home. Lucy walked down the steps, then sat on one of them, breathing in the cool damp island air. Levy poured the purified water into two glasses, then put some of the blackberries and a bowl of her signature soup on the bark tray. Levy slowly walked outside, moving a few millimeters every few seconds. Lucy heard the creaks of the wooden platform behind her, so she turned around.

“Lev, you need some help?” She asked. Levy nodded quickly. Lucy got up and took the bark tray from Levy that she was balancing on her forearm. “When do you think that thing is going to be here?” Lucy asked, referring to the ship that was coming closer to Gerneelia. They both sat down on the same step. “I don’t know.” Levy said. “Maybe tomorrow?” 

Lucy sighed and picked up one of the blackberries. “I hope it doesn’t harm us.” Lucy popped the blackberry into her mouth. “It’s kinda scary. When Wendy gets back, we have to stay together and be extra cautious towards things.” “Yeah.” Levy replied. Just then, a white wildcat burst out of the trees with a 13 year old girl. Levy and Lucy both stood up and set the tray aside. “Whew Wendy, we were starting to get worried about you.” Levy smiled. Wendy walked slowly with Carla by her side to the Flower-house. 

The Flower-house was dimly lit, only illuminated by the moon. Some petals fell on the deck that circled around it. The reason it was called “The Flower-house” came from all of the flowers strung around the wooden treehouse-like structure. Levy and Lucy had worked hard on it for two years, using the scraps from Wendy and Levy’s village to build it. It almost never rained on Gerneelia, yet the island stayed moist and the water supply was good.  This was good for the Flower-house because the flowers got a good supply of water and they never were damaged. Wendy took a flower from the wooden uneven railing and stuck it behind Carla’s ear. It actually suited the white cat pretty well.

Levy gave the cat a fried lizard, but when it was set in-front of Carla, she didn’t eat it. She touched it with the tip of her paw a few times, then walked past it and meowed at Levy. “You darn princess cat.” Levy muttered, then gave her a mashed up blackberry. Carla happily ate that, then sat back down and begged for more. 

“By the way Wendy, we’ve decided that you shouldn’t go out on the island for a short period of time, and neither should we.” Lucy said. Wendy gave Lucy and Levy a confused look. “Why?” She asked. Levy pointed to the barely-visible-because-it’s-dark-outside boat that was nearing the opposite end of the island. “That’s why.” Wendy nodded, and so did Carla, which was weird for a cat. “But, what is it?” She asked. “I don’t really know,” Said Levy, “but it looks like some water transportation thingy that Gerneelia village used to use. It was called a...boat?” “Will it hurt us?” Asked Wendy, now shrinking in her clothes. “I don’t think so.” Lucy said. “Besides, they’re doomed anyway. Who knows what’ll happen when they land on Zeref’s land.”


	5. The Pink Flower

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This weeks chapter...enjoy!
> 
> ~HelloInternet

The air was kind of moist and misty as the crew started down the board that separated them from the sea and the land. It was a sort of gray, cloudy day. Lucy, Levy, and Wendy were still sleeping in their hammocks when the first drop of rain fell from the cloudy sky above them. It landed on Lucy’s face, right by her nose. Her left cheek was directly aligned with a hole in the Flower-house’s roof. Lucy reached up to wipe it off, when she noticed the light drizzle of rain falling outside. Lucy sat up and rubbed her eyes. 

It was...raining? Lucy got up and shook Levy and Wendy in their hammock rapidly, knowing that they should go to the forest to take cover under a tree. The flowers on the Flower-house will probably be blown off if the storm gets bad enough, leaving them almost no shelter except the wooden skeleton of the house. “What is it?” Levy asked, annoyed. “It’s raining.” Lucy whispered, then Levy shot up, surprising Lucy and causing her to fall back onto the wooden floor. Wendy woke up next to her as well, surprised by the sudden action. “Is everything ok?” She asked, then yawned. 

“We need to go!” Lucy urged, rubbing her head. The rain pounded on the rooftop, now seeping through the flowers. The wind was starting to pick up. She stood up and Levy pulled Wendy out of bed. Wendy picked up Carla, who was sleeping underneath the hammock, and rushed outside with the girls. They had their hands acting as a shade for their eyes so they could see better in the rain. Wendy squinted, not having any hands to use. Carla meowed. Lucy lead them through the forest, and to the tree they called “Ame Yanagi”, (The Rain Willow).

You didn’t really find willow trees in the middle of tropical forests, but there was one here. As the legend goes, a fair maiden named Mavis Vermillion once created it from her imagination so that she could read to the village children underneath it. Lucy never believed that the legend was true even though Levy had factual evidence. It was just “weird” to her. Although this tree didn’t belong on the island, it provided great shelter while waiting for the rain to pass. 

Levy, Lucy and Wendy ducked underneath the tree’s long overhanging leaves, and into the moist pocket underneath the tree. “Are you sure we’re gonna be ok?” Wendy asked nervously. She wasn’t used to getting this close to the barrier. Lucy went to the edge of the tree and looked through the hanging leaves as if she were peering through a red stage curtain before a play was about to start. “Probably.”

Meanwhile, Natsu and his crew tore through the leaves, looking rapidly for a sign of human life here. They all seem to have forgotten about the plan. Erza was the first to say something in the almost-heavy rain. “Captain, do you think we ‘ought to go back to the ship?” Everybody agreed with her. “Yeah.” Gray said. “It’s getting bad.” Natsu shook his head. “Until we find her, I’m not stopping.” Everybody groaned. Thunder roared and lightning flashed while the group trailed along in their soaked clothing. “Can’t we just stop already?” Gajeel asked like he just wanted to collapse face-first into the mud that they’re feet were sinking into. Natsu turned around “For Fairytail’s sakes, no!” He shouted, then muttered “I’ve been waiting so long to get here so that we can find her. A little rain isn’t going to stop me.” 

He trudged along the path again, his crew following him. “Y’now,” Started Gray “I bet it’s because Natsu has the hots for Princess Heartfelia.” Natsu’s face glowed so red that you could see it for miles. “What? NO-”

BOOM.

The loud noise caused everyone to look up from what they were doing immediately. A little ways away under the Ame Yanagi tree, Levy, Lucy, and Wendy looked up. The sound was all too familiar. This time, Levy got up to check, swallowing hard. She peeked through the leaves, and saw a tropical pink sort of color in the distance, becoming bigger with every second. She turned back into the tree. “There’s a growing pink flower outside.” 

Natsu and his crew were so petrified at the Darkle that Lucy had outrun many times, that they were sent running for their lives. The dark, shiny figure moved easily in the rain, chasing after them. Levy, Wendy and Lucy sat up against the tree trunk holding hands. “We’re past the barrier, it won’t get us.” Lucy told the girls reassuringly. “Yeah,” said Levy “but the barrier doesn’t stop the thing that angered Zeref.” All you could hear beneath the tree for a second was the pitter-patter of rain. 

BOOM.

There was this weird sound, like something just snapped in half. The Darkle’s loud footsteps weren’t nearly as loud as the noise. Fire reflected in Natsu’s eyes once again. The ship...was gone. Rubble tumbled to the island and into the sea. The crew was moved. Natsu’s mind cleared, and then tripped and tumbled into some random willow tree.

Natsu fell through the leaves and finally caught himself on a rock. He breathed out, his breaths raspy. Lucy was surprised, because this flower-headed person sat at her feet. “Excuse me?” She asked. 

Natsu looked up at Lucy. Their eyes hooked at the same time lightning lit up the sky. His eyes drifted around, then slowly closed, and he collapsed onto the ground. Lucy caught him. She slowly dragged in a breath. There was something so familiar about this person. Levy and Wendy flew over to her side. Levy shrieked. “It’s another person!” She had not seen another for 11 years except for Lucy and Wendy. Wendy looked confused. What was she? This person had a larger, muscular fact about them. They  didn’t have long hair, or a small face. “Who is she?” Wendy asked. Levy glanced at her. “This person is a ‘he’. He is different from us in many ways, but he is still a human.” “He” Wendy repeated, getting a feel for the word. Lucy just sat there with Natsu’s head in her hands. In her world it was silent. There was just something...so familiar about him. “Lu, you okay?” Levy asked. Lucy snapped out of her trance. “Oh, yeah.” She smiled falsely. 

“What should we do?” Wendy asked. Levy thought. “Well if he’s here, there’s got to be others.” Just as Levy said that, there was a cry. “Captain?!” A woman’s, Erza’s, voice carried through the rain. Levy sighed. “I’ll go see what’s going on. You and Wendy stay here with him.” She told Lucy. Lucy nodded. Levy walked through the rain slowly, making sure she didn’t step on anything sharp. “Hello?” She shouted. Levy heard roars come from the right of her by the barrier. She had to squint to see through the sudden fog. “Captain?!” The voice asked in a worried tone again. Levy finally made her way to the tree trunk where 2 people thought they were being cornered by the dark beast.

“He won’t hurt you as long as the barrier’s there.” Levy told them. Surprised by her sudden presence, Gajeel and Erza took a step back. “Princess?” They asked. Levy stared at them, confused. “Hey, look, I’m no princess, but if you don’t want to catch a cold, I suggest coming with me. Levy grabbed Erza’s hand and lead them toward Ame Yanagi. They quizzically followed, exchanging looks. 

By the time Levy, Erza and Gajeel had gotten back to Ame Yanagi, they were surprised to find Juvia, Gray, Mirajane, and Cana settled there too along with Natsu. “Is this all of you?” Levy asked. They looked around and shook their heads. Lucy and Wendy sat close together farther away from the rest. Everyone was staring at her. There were whispers exchanged, and Natsu silently took in breaths. Levy knew that she had to take charge of action, because who else would do it?

“First of all, why do you come here?” Levy asked. Her body was tight. The red-head answered. “We came here looking for a princess.” Levy nodded. “Well, I can assure you that there’s no princess here.” The group sighed. “Who are you anyway, and why should we trust you?” Mirajane asked Levy. “We are um...people...who live here.” “But wasn’t the village burnt down like a decade ago?” Asked a raven-haired guy. “Well, yes, but you see-” Levy caught her tongue. “That’s a story for later. All I know is that your captain came stumbling in here and blacked out.” Levy looked at Natsu. “Once he wakes up, you guys can go back to your little floating mountain boat thingy.” “Ship.” Gray corrected. “Ship.” Levy echoed. 

“But you see, Juvia and the members of Fairytail can’t go back to the ship.” Juvia stated. “It was blown up.” Levy let out a gigantic sigh of ‘Oh my god why’. Lucy and Wendy were surprised too. “So,” Wendy said in a small voice “Where will they go then?” Levy stood silent for a minute. Could she really let these untrustworthy people roam their island? “They come with us.” Levy said plainly. 

The crew was on edge. So much had happened in the last fifteen minutes and if they took in anymore, their head might as well just explode. “But we need to get back to Magnolia Bay at least sometime in the next week.” Gajeel informed Levy. “Well, started Levy, I guess you’re just going to figure that one out yourself.”

  
  



	6. Why

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry everyone for updating late...it's just final school projects and stuff are riding me of my time. So just bear with me on updates. There might be not as many for a period of time, but I can guarantee this story will end by late June or early July. Hope you like it!
> 
> ~HelloInternet

Levy and Wendy picked up the remaining flowers that weren’t torn apart off of the beach. Wendy rubbed the moisture off of her forehead, and continued. The Flower-house needed at least some restructuring, and the vine ladder had ripped in half for some reason. Levy took her time picking up the flowers to worry about Lucy who was leading the crew through the stretch of land that wasn’t dangerous. She would lead them back to their ship, and they would see if they could salvage anything from the wreck. Levy had told Lucy to pick up a few boards too so that they didn’t have to venture all the way back to her village to scrummage through the rotting ones. Natsu’s chest rises and falls while he laid next to them, recovering from the shock of seeing the princess again.

The Sun shone brightly over Gerneelia, warming the island up a little. Under this bright sun, Lucy and the remaining crew trudged through the luke-warm ocean water right on the outside of the barrier entering Zeref’s land. Juvia stared at all of the beautiful shells lying on the bright ocean bed beneath her feet. There were many pastel colors in different shapes and sizes. Juvia smiled. She was starting to like being on this island. Gray looked over at her. Juvia looked so content and happy in his eyes while she looked down. Gray smiled a little too. 

Lucy lead the group to the pieces that were left of their ship. Just like the flowers, wood was strewn all over the beach. Lucy nodded at the crew. This meant that it was okay to go looking on Zeref’s land for a little while. Erza started turning over wooden boards to see what was under them. Juvia trudged through the water once more, looking for pieces of things that may have sinked into the water a little. Gajeel and Gray started loading pieces of the ship onto a cart that Levy had given them. 

A slight wind drifted over them. 

Lucy sat on a ledge overlooking the shipwreck. Her hair flew along with the wind slightly. It was very long, and ran to her bottom. Wendy’s was slightly trimmed, and Levy’s was shoulder-length. Levy had insisted year after year that Lucy should cut her hair with the old shard of glass that lied in a basket underneath the rickety wooden table inside of the flower-house, but Lucy didn’t. She believed that her hair was her strength in this world, and if it had been on her head when she came, it would stay that way.

As the slight summer’s wind ran over them, everyone felt comfort. 

“Mmph.” Natsu let out on the beach next to Levy and Wendy. They instantly looked up. “Levy, The Pink Flower is waking up.” Wendy said as if Levy was blind and couldn’t see a thing. Levy nodded. To be honest, she was kind of scared about the whole thing herself, even if it was made to look like this happened everyday to her. Natsu sat up and surveyed the area after rubbing the bruise on his forehead, his eyes eventually landing on Levy and Wendy. 

“Where is she?” He asked, almost demanding. Levy and Wendy looked at one another. “Who?” Wendy asked. “Lucy!” He replied with a ‘you should know this’ tone. “She’s with your people.” Levy responded, confused of how this weird new person knew Lucy’s name. Natsu started to get up, and then stumbled onto his feet. “Where’s me crew?” Levy ignored him. “Hey you should probably sit down-” Levy went over to Natsu and pressed on his shoulders as hard as she could, but he just stood there, not moving. 

Levy looked up at him in their awkward position. He stared back at her with confusion and slight anger. “You hit your head, so it’s probably good if you just s-” “I’m not sitting down until I see Princess Lucy, er, Princess Heartfelia again.” Levy got frustrated, and released her grip on Natsu’s shoulders. “Why do you people keep calling her that?!” “Hey, guys, could you just calm down?” Wendy asked from behind them. Levy folded her arms across her chest and started in the opposite direction of Natsu, but then she noticed Lucy and the new people walking back. “Lu!” Levy raced down the beach, happy that her friend was ok. Even though they seemed trustworthy, she couldn’t hand over her trust to them completely. 

“Hey!” Lucy smiled and waved as she approached Levy. From behind Wendy, Natsu’s pupils enlarged. It really was...her. The crowd came closer and closer, and the crew recognized that their captain was awake. “Oh hey Natsu.” Erza said. Natsu acknowledged the red-head with a simple nod. Gray trailed behind everyone and whispered to Natsu while he was walking past, “Looks like your girlfriend showed up.” Natsu glowed bright red and kicked him in the shin. 

Lucy walked by with Levy and Wendy, pulling a cart of damp wood. Lucy glanced at him, and then Levy said “C’mon ya big flower.” Natsu took one last look at the shipwreck before it all washed away, and then followed in embarrassment to the wrecked flower-house. He was confused. Why in the world were these girls calling him a flower?

For the next 4 hours of the day, the large group took turns taking breaks from working on the flower-house’s structure. Levy was surprised that everyone actually kinda wanted to help. Although, she thought it was just because she told them that they would have to sleep outside on the ground if they didn’t. Lucy tied the wood together with long vines, and they lead to the top where a big vine held everything up. The crew was surprised as well that the girls had figured these building things out, but when Gajeel said something, Levy snapped back at him: “Do you think we’ve been out here doing nothing for 11 years?”

Gajeel walked back to the thing he was doing, muttering “All I said was that it’s cool you know how to structure stuff.” Levy looked at him from behind. Gajeel was a little harsh, but he was nice she guessed. Levy went back to directing everyone on what to do.

“Pass me that vine.” Lucy said to Juvia and pointed to one of them. She was holding together two planks of wood, and needed a vine to tie them together. As she was working, Lucy decided to make things less awkward between her partner and her by striking up a conversation. So she said the first “girly” thing that came to her mind. “Are you and that one Raven-haired guy, ya know, like, married?” Juvia looked up at Lucy with a death glare. “Don’t you dare even think of Gray-sama.” She said harshly. Lucy was slightly confused. Her first try at making a friend had been useless. “And for your information, Juvia and Gray-sama aren’t even dating.” She said as a sidenote sort of thing. “What’s this...dating?” Lucy asked. Juvia’s emotions were big, so she lept back. “Juvia can’t believe you don’t know what it is!!” She shouted. “Um…” Lucy was weirded out by this girl. “This is why you don’t deserve Gray-sama!” Juvia shouted at Lucy. “Wait what?” Juvia stormed off down the tree that they had climbed on to get to 

the roof of the flower-house. “Juvia’s not helping HER NEW RIVAL.” She said as she passed by Levy, then went to talk to Gray, almost knocking him over. 

Lucy tied the knot she was working on, then removed another old vine and reached down for a new one when her hand met one in midair. Lucy turned around, and saw that one guy again. When she had seen him first under the tree, her breath was taken away, but Lucy didn’t have the slightest idea why. There was just something so familiar about him that she couldn’t place. 

“Thanks.” Lucy muttered. Natsu flushed into the palest skin tone you could imagine. She tied the knot, and then sighed in relief. “Done.” Lucy stood at the rim of the temporary hanging platform, and jumped down. It was slightly awkward because Natsu’s hand that was held out was taken by Lucy after she jumped down. “Here, we can hold hands when we get down the ladder.” Lucy said. Natsu looked at her questionably. After they climbed down the vine ladder that lead up to the tree that supported everything, sure enough, Lucy grabbed Natsu’s hand. In her mind, this was an everyday friendly thing that you could do with anyone. She had been holding Wendy and Levy’s hands for years. 

Levy quickly noticed and walked over to Lucy, whispering something in her ear. Lucy instantly became tomato red and ripped her hand away from Natsu’s. 

~~~~~~~~~

“Thanks everyone for all of your hard work today!” Levy said, and smiled widely. “We couldn’t have done it without you.” The flower-house was completely rebuilt and was lit up with candles. The cool night air ran through the place, relaxing everyone. “Now, you may eat.” Levy had prepared a big feast that night, and everyone happily dug in. Lucy, Levy and Wendy sat together, eating slowly, observing the crew that were eating like pigs. 

It was weird having guests. The girls weren’t used to talking to other people except for themselves. 

When everyone was as full as they could be, the fire on the beach from earlier was almost out. The group was worn out, and they laid against the walls of the flower-house. Lucy watched the flame of the candle slowly move around in the wind. She thought that fire was stunning and beautiful, but unknown to her, a certain pink-haired boy that lie on his stomach across from her did not. Only Levy, Wendy, Lucy, Erza and Natsu were still awake. All you could hear was the semi-silent hum of the night. 

“Hey, it was Lucy, correct?” Natsu asked a sleepy-eyed Lucy. She nodded her head slowly. Erza silently smiled to herself and muttered “Once we get this mess figured out, we’ll have to bring you back home.” Levy looked over at Erza. “What do you mean?” Lucy turned her focus to Erza as well, wanting to know more. Erza sighed and then spoke “Well, our crew came here to find the missing princess who had been left on this island 11 years ago. It was her father’s final wish that we find his beloved Lucy. King Heartfelia felt bad because he never got to spend time with her. It’s rather sad actually. We just got word of his death a couple months back before we left on the voyage.” 

“Do you think the princess is Lucy?” Wendy whispered shyly to Levy. Meanwhile Lucy lay against the wall. “Maybe it is me.” Lucy’s chocolate brown eyes were stuck on the fire. Then she looked up. “I mean, I have a necklace with my name on it. That didn’t come from here. And I’ve been here for 11 years and-” Lucy said frantically. “Lucy calm down.” Levy interrupted. But then Lucy’s brown eyes looked up to Natsu “it’s why you’re so familiar.”


	7. Fruit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so this is this week's chapter.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it...
> 
> but I have some bad news. 
> 
> I won't be updating for the next two weeks because of REASONS and so I won't see you until June the 7th or something. 
> 
> I hope you can forgive me!
> 
> ~HelloInternet

Natsu turned his head to the ground. “Maybe so.” He smiled sadly to himself, but then looked back up at Lucy. “You need to come with us once we figure out how to get off of this island.” Levy tensed. “She’s not coming off of this island and that’s final.” Levy said. “I don’t know about that.” Erza shot back. “We need a ruler to lead out people.” Lucy thought silently. 

“Well, if they need help trying to rule their kingdom, maybe I should go.” “But Lucy, I don’t want you to leave.” Wendy cried. “Lucy, can we really trust them if we just met them? They may take you to this place and harm you.” Levy said, worried. “I don’t know.” Lucy said. “It’s just so sudden that I figure out that I may be this missing princess you claim to rescue on Gerneelia. I don’t know what to think of it.” Erza sighed and set her hand on Lucy’s thigh. “Our mission is to rescue you and bring you back to Magnolia safe. We can’t leave without you.”

Lucy looked at Levy and Wendy. Levy spoke. “I’m sorry, I just can’t agree.” Natsu and Erza drooped. “We can’t force you, so it’s okay.” “Erza!” Natsu said with disappointment. “I hope someday we can get out of your hair, but until then, could you just think about it?” Erza asked hopefully. “I guess.” Replied Levy. 

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

“Let’s go to Gerneelia village to collect some fruit.” Levy whispered to Lucy earlier that morning. “Wendy can take care of herself for a few hours...and these people don’t seem to want to hurt us or they would’ve done it already...so come on!” Lucy slowly got up and yawned. “What?” Levy shushed her. “Let’s go.” As Lucy got up the floorboards creaked under her. Levy was frantically waving a ‘come on’ signal, and Lucy slowly hurried to catch up with her at the door. Just as they were about to climb down the ladder, Wendy woke up and said to them loudly across the room: “Where are you going?” Levy froze. 

Of course, the loud words caused Juvia to wake up, then Gray, Erza, Natsu, and so on…

Lucy thought it was funny when the whole group came along while Levy trudged, moping, in front. “Hey Levy, where exactly is this place?” Mirajane asked. Levy didn’t reply., so Lucy answered for her. “It’s about one mile out from here...we’ll be there by noon. Cana groaned. 

“Juvia thinks that part of the water looks gorgeous.” Juvia said, pointing to the beautiful small canal of bright blue water. It sparkled under the sun, high in the sky. Lucy looked over at the water and pictured Levy, Wendy and her playing there. Like she had read her mind, Levy said “I discovered it, and we go there to swim sometimes.” proudly. 

The group walked and walked and walked. Levy slowly got bored of being mad and joined in with the funny things the crew was talking about. Although, one person in particular was thinking about something so much different. The truth is, it was Mirajane who had started the GrUvia rumor, and she was about to start the NaLu one too. “Hey Lucy, I’m so glad we found you here! You’re all Natsu’s been thinking of ever since-” “Mirajane!” Natsu shouted at her with clamped teeth. Mirajane closed her mouth and giggled as Lucy pretended to ignore them, her head held low. Even though Natsu had covered for him, Gray decided to step in as well. “Yeah, I think he’s got the hots for Lucy.” Lucy silently sweat-dropped, almost blowing. “I don’t like her!” Natsu shouted, and started to pout, but then, realizing what he said, added “I-I mean I like her as a friend but just…” He stammered. Gray raised his eyebrows up and down at Natsu who looked away. 

“Oh, well when you keep passionately staring at Juvia so much, it’s hard to tell you’re not married.” Natsu shot at Gray. Juvia burst up into the air. “Gray-sama passionately stares at Juvia??!!!” “Shut up!” Gray shouted at Natsu, and then they started to fight. Only a few punches were thrown before Erza stepped in, knocked the two boy’s heads together, and said: “Unless you two want to get hurt, I suggest you stop.” She glanced up at the small village before them. “Besides, we’re already here.”

Gerneelia village looked completely torn up. The only thing that was slightly pretty about it was all of the fruit that hung from the trees. “Ok everyone, we need to find as many coconuts, oranges and cocoa beans as possible.“ Most everyone groaned. Quickly, Levy added “When we get done, I’ll help brainstorm ideas of how to get you off of this island.” “Well, let’s go then.” Natsu said, and started off to a palm tree. 

 

~~~~~~

 

Soon the afternoon sun had become a bit more gentle, and the waves slowed into a calmer drifting state. A bunch of woven baskets had been filled with fruit and cocoa beans and Levy just stood there, admiring and thinking of how many things she could do with the amount of food they’d harvested today. They had nearly run out of baskets by then, and the fruit and beans were almost all harvested from the plants. 

“Are we done...yet?!!” Natsu breathlessly asked. Levy looked around. “Almost...we just need to harvest one more tree of oranges.” “C’mon Levy, it’s enough.” Lucy said. “Besides, all of our baskets are filled. You can go back tomorrow if it’s that special to you.” She reasoned, and everybody seemed to like the sound of that. “Oh, all right.” Levy gave in. “But you don’t get much help on getting out of here.” Levy honestly didn’t know how she was going to help them anyway. It was just something to motivate the crew into picking her food. Levy guessed it was better for them to expect less than expect more out of her.

Extravagant colors washed over the sky as Levy and the rest of the group walked the two miles along the shoreline back to the flower-house. Just before they were about to pass the canal, Natsu ran to a sandy indent in the beach. Lucy stopped, being the only one who had noticed. “What’s he doing?” She asked as the others passed her. Everyone slowly stopped to see their captain with a huge stick, dragging it along the dry sand. He dragged it along, then lifted it up, repeating the process several times. “Natsu!” Gray shouted to him. “Whaddya doin’?!” Natsu looked up. “I’m writing a message.” He shouted back. Erza rushed over to see what he meant. She examined what he had so far. Natsu was on the exclamation point when Erza said something. “Natsu, it says ‘halp’.”

“What?” The pinkette questioned. He stepped back. “No, I’m pretty sure that’s how you spell help.” Erza scoffed. “Did you learn anything in school? That’s an ‘a’...it makes the ‘ah’ sound.” Erza told him like he was new to this. “Therefore, you wrote halp.” “Can we just go! The sun’s going down and I don’t want to stay outside at night just because of some correction.” Levy shouted to them impatiently. “Yeah Natsu, I don’t really see why you would write a message to others if this island hasn’t even really been found.” Mirajane said. “Yeah, well I have hope even if all of you don’t. At least it’s here if the impossible happens.” Natsu shouted angrily at her from the sudden frustration of spelling a word wrong. Lucy smiled a little. Hope. 

“COME ON. We need to really get back.” Levy said. “Geez. Can you wait a second?” Natsu asked, flustered. Erza threw the stick that Natsu had handed her down. “Mirajane’s right. It would be a once in a lifetime chance that they would find this place. Let’s just go.” Natsu followed Erza back to the group and sighed. They continued, and the sunset fled into night quickly. The darkness chirped and the warm wind drifted over the group. “C’mon.” Levy said waving towards the tropical forest suddenly. “We can’t continue since we had an interruption in our walk home and we started late...so...we have no choice but to stop for the night.” Wendy and Juvia shivered. “But Juvia’s scared.” Gray glanced at her. “You’ll have to pull through then. We’ll continue in the morning; just sit down somewhere in there.” Levy pointed between the trees. 

It was dark, so very dark.

  
  
  
  
  
  



	8. Jellal

“Well I’m not going in there.” Lucy finally said to the full group, although it was out of her comfort zone. She turned around and sat on a rock. Levy had had enough of this. “Well fine. If you guys want to stay out here you can.” Some faces smiled. “But whoever wants to actually be safe, come with me.” Then she muttered “You gotta face your fears at least sometime.” Levy was convinced that this safety offering was going to work on them. However, she got what she least expected. Lucy slid down the rock, getting to the bottom and yawning. “I’m staying here.” Natsu shifted a little. Should he go or stay? Wendy jumped out of the crowd and over to Lucy. Carla followed. “I’m with you Lucy.” Levy watched them with a stern face. “Juvia will join you as well.” In her mind she screamed “But I don’t wanna leave Gray-Sama!!” All Juvia did to express this is look back at him with worry. “Anyone else?” Levy asked angrily. Natsu gulped, then said “Erm...I’ll stay too. Just to protect them, y’know?” Gray smirked. “Does Natsu want to have his first kiss that badly?” Everyone spiked up, especially the one being accused. “What? NO!” Natsu screamed at him with a cherry-red face. 

“It’s just that, I don’t really trust this island and if one of my crew members is staying behind, I guess I have to as well.” Gray didn’t really move, but just stared at him. Why did Natsu want to stay behind with Juvia just because. Did he like her? Lucy stared at her hands, thinking the same thing that Gray was. “Well, let’s go whoever wants to be safe.” Levy said, then stepped into the dark abyss of wilderness. The remaining group trailed behind her, looking at everything with curiosity. Levy was puzzled. She had never seen this part of the island before. Everything looked so delicate and peaceful. As they ventured farther into the forest, the things surrounding them became more calm.

Delicate mist fell onto their faces from a nearby waterfall, and dewdrops fell off of rainforest flowers to the cool ground below them. Fireflies drifted around the treetops, and moonlight was shone through them too. Everyone at that moment was in a mindstate of relaxation and wonder. It was beautiful. “This is why you don’t judge things on this island.” Levy said, greatly satisfied with her decision. Mirajane looked out into the beautiful lit-up blue pool underneath the tiny waterfall. “Can we stop here?” She asked. Levy looked over at her. “I guess if you guys want to.” 

Meanwhile, Natsu, Lucy, Juvia and Wendy were spread out among the beach, bored. “They’re gonna think we’re scaredy cats.” Lucy was the first to slice her words through the air. “Yes, but Juvia’s better staying out here with her rival than going into the darkness with her love.” Juvia said. Wendy was the next to speak. “Do you think something might’ve happened to them?” She asked in a worried tone. “I doubt it.” Natsu replied. “But there’s no way in hell I’m going to go under the name ‘Scaredy Cat’.” It was quiet for a minute. “Do you think we should’ve gone?” Lucy asked. Wendy and Juvia both shook their heads, but Natsu was silent. “If it’s to clear my nickname for life, we should’ve gone with no restraint.” -_- = Lucy, Juvia and Wendy’s faces. A couple of splashes were heard from the forest, causing everyone to eventually look up. “It’s probably them just messing around.” Lucy said. “Hopefully.”  

“I’m hungry.”

“I’m pretty sure we all are Natsu.” Lucy muttered back, annoyed with him. Lucy got very grumpy when she was hungry and usually got mad at everyone. Natsu jumped to his feet and started walking towards the forest. “What in the world are you doing now?!” Lucy called after him as he ran to the forest. “Getting something to eat.” He yelled without looking back. Lucy grumbled. “Well come on then.” She motioned for Wendy and Juvia to follow. “Hey, wait a minute would ya?!”

 

~~~~~~

 

Mirajane and Levy sat at the edge of the moon pool type area of water. Their feet rested in the cool water on a ledge before it got too deep. Most of the others were crowded around a campfire that glowed in the darkness of the night. But Erza leant against a tree, staring at the moon. She was in a very quiet and peaceful state, thinking. It wasn’t often that Erza would let her mind take over. There was just something about this night that made her think about Jellal. 

In her mind, she saw a young figure with a black and gold jacket surrounding him. A red tattoo took place over his left eye while his blue hair was swept over his face in a messy sort of way. Erza stared at a blade of grass, swallowing the lump in her throat.

Splash!

 

~~A couple moments earlier~~

 

“Wendy, Juvia, hurry up before you get lost.” Lucy whisper shouted and hurried after Natsu. Juvia admitted that she didn’t like Lucy, but sometimes you do things that your rival says because you know it’s right yourself so she didn’t say anything. “For the last time, where in the world are we going?” Lucy asked Natsu after she caught up with him. “There’s not a we, you chose to come.” Natsu sighed and put his arms behind his head as a rest. He earned a good eye-roll from Lucy. “Hey guys?!” Wendy exclaimed and stopped. “Yeah?” Lucy stopped. “What’s that?” She pointed to an overwhelming dark structure in the trees. Lucy walked back to where Wendy was, and she saw it too. “I’ve never seen it before.” Wendy added. Lucy’s eyebrows furrowed. Honestly, she didn’t know what to think.

There was no one else on this island except for them three or they would have known about it. How come they were just noticing this place now? Lucy trampled all of the tall grass as she crept closer to the strange silhouette. “Well then, see ya later!” Natsu said, and then turned to go back after he got a good glimpse at whatever was in front of them. Lucy grabbed Natsu’s shoulder and pushed him around, then forwards to where Natsu was in front of her. “We’re not supposed to split up, so…” She looked down, then continued. “come with us.” As soon as the small group had started walking to the dark structure, Natsu was already complaining about how he would much rather be eating fruit that second. 

As they got closer, all except for Natsu who was staring intensely at the ground noticed the giant pillars that stood boldly in front of the brick building covered in ivy. It looked very mysterious to Lucy and Wendy who had never seen something like this. “Juvia wonders why a library is in the middle of Gerneelia.” She said, reading the sign. Natsu looked up now, noticing it too. “Is that what it is, a...li-brary?” Lucy said aloud while saying the word for the first time. “Juvia, it’s called a  _ labriry _ here.” Everyone gave Natsu strange looks. “Pssh. It’s what the sign says.” He claimed.

Lucy knocked on the big wooden doors in front of them. As she knocked, the door sounded very solid and heavy. At least it was built well. When no one answered, Lucy reached for the rusting handlebars and pulled on them. Surprisingly, it wasn’t locked. The big oak doors creaked open slowly to reveal a musty dark room. You could see absolutely nothing in the place, and the moonlight didn’t help because, of course, it was night. Juvia pushed Lucy several feet inside, then Lucy stepped back out. “I’m not going in there unless there’s light.” Lucy held her ground. “And why the hell did you just push me Juvia?!” As Lucy and Juvia were bickering, Wendy’s gaze landed on Natsu fishing something out of his pocket. His hand stopped, and pulled out a small shiny object. “What’s that?” Wendy asked with curiosity towards the weird thing. “A lighter.” He pushed a button on it and fire came out of the front. “Woah.” Wendy said in amazement. “I don’t use it much but-” “Do you use fire magic?” She interrupted. Natsu picked up some dry grass from the ground. “Not exactly.” He then attached a handful of the stuff to a stick and drew the lighter closer to it. Suddenly, the grass ignited, and Natsu grinned, satisfied with himself. 

Lucy and Juvia noticed the weird sudden light and stopped throwing mean words at one another. “How’d you manage to make a moving flame so fast?” Lucy asked in astonishment after observing the thing. “Natsu has a lighter that can make instant fire!” Wendy exclaimed. Lucy cleared her throat. “Really? Well. Now that we have light, Juvia volunteers to go in first.” Lucy pushed Juvia inside forcefully, and Natsu followed slowly.

The big spacious room that they had come into was lined with millions of dull books. Some had gold rims and others had decorative letters on the spine. They were arranged together perfectly on darker wooden shelves that curved along with the wall when necessary. The glossy wooden tables shined in the light of Natsu’s fire as they crept closer to the scene. To the right and left of the center books, two staircases swerved between shelves of them. As the groups eyes took them to up the staircase and to the top of the books, they started to see more in depth of the place since their eyes had adjusted to the darkness. There was wooden railing shaped in different figures lining the top center part, and over them hung pictures of many different things. 

“What is this place?” Asked Lucy. Juvia responded a few seconds later. “A very grand library.” Lucy’s thoughts flipped over in her mind like pancakes. ‘A “library” must be where people keep books, or read them’ She thought. “Do you guys have these weird things on your island?” Asked Wendy. “Yeah, of course we have libraries.” Natsu blurted out. “There’s one in Fairytail Castle that’s much nicer than this old one, but of course, the commoners like Juvia’s library could only hope to be like this.” Juvia added. Lucy’s hands trailed across books on the second to last shelf before it ended on the ground. Levy had told her of these messages on paper called books. They were supposed to hold stories that you could read over and over again. Lucy grabbed an emerald green one a put it in her satchel/bag for later. 

An unknown light flickered down the corridor above the books and reflected off of the walls. Surprised, Natsu grabbed everyone and shoved them underneath the left staircase, then hopped behind it himself. “What are you doing now?” “Ssh.” Natsu held his finger to his lips. “Someone’s coming.” Lucy rolled her eyes once more. “Like I’d believe that.” Wendy looked at her worried. “Lucy, please don’t-” Lucy stood up and got out of the tiny crevice that she was pushed against, then went out in the open, her bare feet cold against the marble floors. “For god sakes guys. I’ve lived here all my life a-” Natsu, Juvia, and Wendy’s pupils enlarged. “-nd there couldn’t possibly be another-” Lucy turned around only to be met by the eyes of a mysterious man. “human.”

 

 

Lucy stared at the strange blue-haired man that had just recently appeared behind her. He stared back, sort of surprised and stiff. All anyone could see was his eyes because a black cloth hung over his nose and mouth. A hood over his head made the man a lot more introverted and mysterious. He wore a black coat with gold stripes coming down to the bottom of it. It was sort of like Natsu’s captain robe/jacket. “W-What are you doing here?” He stuttered. “‘What are we doing here?’, more like what are YOU doing here?” Natsu shot back, then leapt to grab Lucy’s wrist and pull her back. The book in her bag flew out because of it’s lack of room against the fruits saved for later inside. The man bent down to grab the book and question them about it, but Lucy got to it first. She pulled it away and out of his grasp, then started running. Natsu got the gist of her motion before the man did, and Wendy and Juvia were pulled along with him. They rushed out of the Library, and then into the forest. Having nothing else to do at that moment, the man ran after them, setting the first foot in grass of his for years. 

Through the trees, bushes, and vines they ran. Lucy wanted this emerald book so bad, and she just couldn’t give it up, let alone be punished for stealing it in the first place. It was random where she twisted and turned. She just wanted to get away from this weird person. Natsu and the others slid at sudden stops and turns that Lucy made, but the mysterious man never lost sight of them. “Hey, wait!” He yelled after them. Lucy saw a bluish glow coming from some sort of waterfall in the distance, so she turned that way and ran toward it hoping to lose the man. Lucy bolted towards the slight clearing at the speed of light, hoping her friends would catch up to her in time. Lucy got to the clearing, only to realize she had stopped in time to balance on the sliver of land between ground and water. Natsu flew towards Lucy, but stopped behind her balancing act. Then Juvia burst through the trees as well only to claim Natsu’s spot, lunging him forward into Lucy, and eventually the water, taking Lucy down with him. Splash! Wendy caught up, and then the mysterious man did too just as Lucy and Natsu hit the water.

 

 

Erza’s eyes bulged. “Jellal?”

 


	9. From Underneath The Ame Yanagi

_ “Jellal?” _

 

Erza was starstruck. He was here...standing just feet away from her. She couldn’t take her eyes off of the man standing there. His hazel eyes stared back at her, shocked. “Are you really there?” She asked, taking short breaths. Natsu flung Lucy out of the water with him, unconsious. Levy rushed over to help while everyone else stared at Erza and the place she was staring at, “Jellal”. Levy burst into the water and swam over to Natsu, who was hesitant about handing over the blonde even though adrenaline ran through him for her to get help. Levy practically pulled Lucy away from him, and the two swam back to get to shore. “Hey.” Jellal ignored her, still not breaking eye contact. “B-but you’re-” Jellal seemed to suddenly fade into thin air, then appear right in-front of Erza and place his cold finger to her lips possibly meaning to be quiet. He looked her dead in the eye, inches from her face. He seemed to...float?  Erza gulped. And then like it never happened, he drifted off with the wind. Lots of feelings ran through Erza. She felt like if she thought anymore, her mind would explode. Why was Jellal here anyway?

Juvia and Wendy walked around the small moon-pool sort of thing and eventually got to where Levy and Lucy were. Levy had Lucy sprawled out onto the sand, her head in Natsu’s lap, and was beginning to give what Levy’s island called “CPR”. Natsu just observed as Levy took the bone between her wrist and palm, placed both of her hands together, and pressured her weight onto Lucy’s chest. Almost everyone questioned the action...and then, when they thought it couldn’t get any worse, Levy opened Lucy’s mouth with her two fingers and started blowing air into her. After about four attempts, Lucy coughed up water and gasped for air. Everything had gone blurry and disoriented for her, so she wobbled as she tried to sit up. Wendy ran over and tried to help Lucy as Gray got up as well. Mirajane was patting Lucy’s shoulder and trying not to scratch her with her long, well-cared-for fingernails. “Hey Bunny-Girl, you okay?” Gajeel asked from the campfire. 

As more and more people came to check up on Lucy, Juvia felt worse. So, she decided that even though she wasn’t fond of Lucy, she would still apologize to her and Natsu. Juvia made her way over to the group, slowly and quietly. With every step, her confidence rose and fell. Juvia knew that she was to blame, but apologizing would solve the problem, right? “Excuse me, but Juvia would like to apologize.” She said over the voices of the crew. She tried to push through Levy and Mirajane. “I’m sorry Juvia, but we don’t need any help from  _ you _ .” Levy hissed immediately towards her, still ticked off. Even though Gray was across from the scene in the huddled circle, he still seemed to notice through all of the group conversations. “Juvia’s sorry, it was an acci-” “I don’t care! Lucy’s hurt, and it’s your fault. It would probably have been best if you weren’t even on the crew to begin with!” Juvia stepped back. “Hey Levy, that’s enough.” Gray shot through the group at her. ‘Why does Juvia feel like a kid again?’ Juvia thought, and remembered when she was bullied for her gloomy thoughts and weird divorced parents. 

To her, it felt like those rainy evenings when she would cry at night because of the mean words and divorce trauma that swirled around in her thoughts. It felt...terrible. So, Juvia quietly stepped out of the clearing and ran through the leaves and trees, letting whatever it was scratch her ankles and legs. As usual, she tried to run from it all. For the first time, Gray left her mind. Until she heard his voice. 

“Juvia!” 

Juvia kept on running. “Hey, come on Juvia!” She didn’t stop. “We’re going to get lost!” Gray said with his convincing, threatening tone of voice. “Juvia,” Gray yelled after her, “come on! Let’s go back!” Juvia’s feet came to a stop out of the blue. Luckily, Gray, who was about 2 yards behind her, saw that she had stopped and had started jogging over. Before he could reach her, she yelled “I’M NOT GOING BACK!” and continued through the unexplored territory. Her voice echoed in and out of Gray’s ears, on every rock, every leaf, every tree. That was when Gray knew that something was terribly wrong. 

As he walked slowly after her, he thought about Juvia’s outburst. Why did she say a sentence in first person? What was even more unlike her is that she wasn’t so bubbly and obsessive, instead, her scream was filled with anger and sadness. Emotion. Gray found himself heading back after a while. Juvia needed time alone, and he accepted that. Gray continued back, wherever it was, hoping that Juvia was ok. Soon, he got back to the clearing where everyone else was, regretting his decision already. No one even recognized his arrival. Erza was helping Mirajane hang up wet clothes, looking kinda jumpy and shocked. Then there was Wendy braiding Lucy’s hair. Cana was dipping her feet in the blue moon-pool and Natsu and Gajeel were fighting over how you spell their names. Natsu pointed to a word in the dirt spelled N-A-L-U, and Gajeel insisted his name was spelled G-A-J-E-V-Y.  _ Author-chan: *mentally facepalms*  _

Soon, everyone had gathered up together and crashed. As the snoring roared on, Gray couldn’t help but think about Juvia. ‘She should be back by now’. He turned onto his side and let out a deep breath. ‘Did something happen?’ Gray turned back to face the sky. Why should he care about where Juvia was, she could fend for herself. ‘What if she’s dead?’ He was so disrupted by his thoughts that he wanted to yell. Unable to think of absolutely anything else, Gray got up and started down the forest path to sought out Juvia. It was eerie and silent as he crept through the moist place from the rain they’d had the day before. “Ugh.” After about fifteen minutes, Gray was ready to abandon the mission and head back to try and get at least some sleep. But that’s not what the night had planned for him.

‘ _ sniff _ ’. Gray paused for a moment, trying to place if he actually heard the sound, or if was just a figment of his imagination. ‘Audio is the most common hallucination anyway’ Gray thought, but he still decided to check. Next, he heard a breath coming from the opposite direction in which he was looking. As soon as Gray got there, he recognized the place. In front of him is the tree in which the crew had first met the island girls. He had a sudden flashback, but the purple glow coming from behind the concealing, shaggy leaves of the tree sent him spiraling back into reality. 

Gray walked closer, and used his had to peer in, like you were pushing a curtain back to see outside. He was surprised to find Juvia staring into space, resting against the trunk with a tearstained face. “Juvia?” She glanced up at him, then down at her hands. “Oh, hi.” Juvia muttered. “You ok?” Gray asked as he stepped forward. “Perfectly fine.” 

“Come on, I know for a fact you're not ‘fine’.” Gray leant against the next to Juvia. Juvia couldn’t hold her blush. Even though she was sad, her love for Gray was still there. “Juvia is sorry, but Levy threw mean words at her, and it didn’t feel that good.” Gray nodded. “Well ignore them. You apologized, didn’t you? The next time, if there is one, ignore all the things that upset you because you know that they aren’t true.” “But Juvia can’t!” A tear streamed down her cheek. “It is true what Juvia did.” “It was an accident Juvia, you didn’t mean to push Natsu and Lucy into the river. Apologize to them tomorrow when they’ve recovered more.” “Juvia doesn’t want to see them again.” “Why?” Gray questioned. “Because once someone hurts Juvia’s feelings, she never wants to see them or anyone else from the same place again!! No one cares about Juvia’s feelings towards anything!!! No one cares about her at all!!” “Juvia…” Gray placed his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him while trying to cool down from her sudden outburst. “I care about you.”

Butterflies flew through Juvia’s stomach. “But why would you care about a person like me?” She asked, knowing there wouldn’t be an answer and those were probably just comfort words. “Because.” Juvia searched his eyes for answers, but she couldn’t see through the slight grin on his face. Then it was like everything fell into slow motion. Gray put his hand up to Juvia’s cheek and stroked it with his thumb. Juvia turned red. Gray got up from leaning against the tree and went in front of Juvia. His face inched closer to hers. Juvia’s heart pounded in her chest like a drum that kept on alternating it’s mallets at the speed of light. Gray was now centimeters from kissing Juvia. She looked deep into Gray’s eyes. They seemed to gleam now, of course she hadn’t ever seen them up this close before. Gray whispered “I love you.” and their lips collided. Juvia couldn’t describe the wholeness she felt at that moment. She had finally fallen into her own storybook. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my geez. I can not tell you guys how incredibly sorry I am for posting updates every two weeks. Even though it's summer and I should be resting, I've had to wake up every morning at 6:15 to go practice a summer play I'm doing. Ugh. I don't even know how I've managed to get this in between my schedule. I'm sorry it's short...heh. But there's major GrUvia development AMIRITE? Enjoy the rest of your day everyone!
> 
> Signing out,
> 
> HelloInternet


	10. Gloss

 

Gray was now centimeters from kissing Juvia. She looked deep into Gray’s eyes. They seemed to gleam now, of course she hadn’t ever seen them up this close before. Gray whispered “I love you.” and their lips collided. Juvia couldn’t describe the wholeness she felt at that moment. She had finally fallen into her own storybook. 

 

_ Meanwhile _

Lucy pulled her thighs to her chest, hugging them in her undisturbed light sleep. However, even though she was bound to wake up at any given moment, the green book rattled in her bag. It was like hardcore buzzing of a phone. The book moved around and then eventually slipped out of her bag onto the grassy surface that she slept on. Lucy opened her eyes groggily, and then closed them again to sleep, unaware of the weird happening. 

About 30 minutes afterward, Erza woke up suddenly, troubled. She was sweating, but cold at the same time. She had that dream again. The one that she wanted so badly to believe didn’t happen. Erza was snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed Gray missing. Of course Juvia had gone to get water (she assumed), but wasn’t she supposed to be back too? Erza stood up on the ball of her feet, then looked around. She didn’t want to scream out Gray and Juvia’s name because ever since her and other people’s sighting of Jellal, the island didn’t feel very comfortable to her anymore. 

She walked past the third unusual sighting of the night while she was trying to get to the forest. Why was Levy curled up next to Gajeel? At unease, Erza trampled plants to silently look for Gray and Juvia. Erza was about to take another step when she saw two silhouettes in the distance. Ok, now she felt like she was going to throw up. “So what do we say?” Asked a female. “I don’t know.” Erza peered out from behind a rock. “Just don’t tell anyone that we kissed.” They walked past her. Erza furrowed her brows. It Gray? ...and Juvia? She stood and cleared her throat behind them. Juvia turned around and jumped backwards, startled from Erza’s sudden appearance. Gray gave her a questioning look, then turned to Erza as well. He saw her, then was surprised and stepped back a little. “Oh, Erza.” She lifted an eyebrow up. “Why are you guys so jumpy?” She asked even though the answer was already known. Gray rubbed the back of his head. “None of your concern.” Erza walked up to them. “So something did happen.” Gray didn’t reply and Juvia was dead silent. “Don’t worry,” Erza whispered. “your secret’s safe with me.”

 

~~~~~~~~

 

The early morning light soon spread over Gerneelia. Levy was the first to wake up and smack innocent Gajeel for spooning her. Her claimed that he was used to hugging his cat Panther-Lily. Levy knew that he wasn’t to blame anyway. She was the one who was used to sleeping with someone anyway. (Author-chan: Don’t you dare get the wrong idea.) So, as usual, she was the one to wake everyone up. It was around ten when Cana arose from her daily hangover. Gallons and gallons of alcohol were processed through her body everyday, so it would take years without any consumption before she didn’t have a hangover every morning. Natsu was the one to sleep in though. At about noon, Levy was about to kick someone because they needed to get back to the flower house. But to their surprise, it was actually pretty close considering the Ani Yanagi tree was a few paces away. Cana ended up waking up Natsu, because by then the group had supposedly left them behind. 

They soon caught up to the group who was impatiently using the scare tactic. 

“Hey Juvia?” Levy slowed to walk next to Juvia in the back. “I’m really sorry about last night. I was just scared. Lucy told me that I had sounded really mean, so I came here to apologize. Are you okay?” Juvia didn’t say anything for a while. “Juvia can’t accept your apology.” Levy sighed. “You decided to come in during the aftermath of my panic attack. It’s ok if you won’t forgive me. I’ll just have to prove I’m sorry.” Levy said the last part with confidence. Juvia was silent as Levy rushed back up to the front to talk to Wendy. 

Soon, Mirajane saw the Flower-house in the distance. “Hey Levy, there’s your house!” Levy looked up and started running along the shoreline. Her feet made wet sand fly up into the front of the group’s face. Wendy and Lucy ran too, greeting their new home. Eventually, the everyone took off too, not wanting to be left behind. When Wendy, Lucy and Levy got to the flower house, they collapsed onto the ground out of breath, laughing. “We’re finally back!” Levy sighed. Lucy was the only one looking upwards at the sky that was beginning to fade into a dark blue. Lucy looked around the sky at all of the clouds that were floating by. They were fluffy and graceful. Someday she would like to sit on a cloud. It’s just not possible though. 

As Lucy stared at the sky, she saw something glimmer. It wasn’t a star, for it was too early in the day for that. The sky had become a sort of gloss. Almost translucent. Lucy stared and stared, not even hearing the arrival of her friends. “Um Lucy,” Gray was looking down at her. “What’cha staring at?” Lucy snapped out of her gaze. “Isn’t there something strange about the sky?” She asked, just to make sure she wasn’t crazy. Gray looked up and studied it, then looked back down, thinking. “What is that?” He asked her. “Don’t ask me.”

By the time night had come, the sky had completely glossed over. The weird matter was now surrounding the island like a dome. The moon which was regularly just a white circle had transformed into a big outstretch of light. Nearly everyone was troubled about this. Levy had gone to gather information with Mirajane, Cana, Natsu, Erza and Gajeel while Lucy, Gray, Juvia and Wendy stayed at the Flower-house. 

“Carla, I’m scared.” Wendy told the cat that was purring in her lap. Lucy sat up against the wall reading through books from Levy’s old village. Although she stumbled on a few words, Lucy tried to understand as best she could. “Illumination is key to seeing…..no...Katniss who and the cornucopia?...windows?” Lucy muttered to herself. Juvia had apologized to Lucy before she started reading so she sat next to her. Gray was reading to himself on the opposite edge of the room and Wendy laid in her hammock, not knowing how to read at all. Time flew by fast. Levy and the others hadn’t come back yet deep into the night, and Lucy stayed awake while her group slowly fell asleep. It was nearly dawn when Lucy reached into her bag for something to eat. When she gripped a piece of fruit and pulled it out, Lucy noticed that her orange was all dented. That was weird. She grabbed her whole bag wondering what in the world was going on and looked inside. Cocoa beans were smashed into powder, oranges were dented like hers, and the coconuts were fine. Alongside that was the book covered in chocolate powder. Lucy glanced over at her pile of “read” books and decided that she should at least read this one too. 

On the front of the emerald-green book were shimmery gold letters that spelled out “Kansoku” or “Observations”. Lucy opened it, wondering what “observations” meant. Inside the book were lots of patterns and small handwriting. Lucy had to squint to see it. At the top left corner of the first page was the name Mavis Vermillion. Next to that was a list of pages and words describing what was on them. Or, a table of contents. Lucy’s eyes slowly went down the list, reading every letter and syllable very carefully. She stopped when she saw the name “Zeref”. Startled, Lucy turned to the group of pages concerning him. They were filled with lots of pictures. A stone, a ray of light, a cave, carrots, and...a dome? She decided to read from the top of the page. 

“What in Gerneelia?!!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hai everyone!
> 
> I'm sorry, I feel like my updates have been lousy. Next week the chapter will be all about what is actually inside the book so that you can finally figure things out. I have this huge plot and I have this way of suddenly spilling everything in one chapter. I'll be on vacation too, so the chapter won't be as long as usual. 
> 
> Bye!
> 
> ~HelloInternet


	11. The Emerald Book

_My Dearest Zeref and His Tale_

_Now I know I haven’t mentioned this before, but it really is important to my personal story. I’ve written down the things I do such as observe my old home, the mainland and watch over the children of my island, but I’ve never told you about my husband Zeref and how we became the founders of Gerneelia._   
_Long ago, we had just gotten married on my front porch with only the milkman as a guest. That was one of the happiest times I had in my long life. One morning, we were taking a stroll down the winding dirt path that went all around Magnolia. He said to me: “It’s one of my dreams that we own something together.” I smiled at him and replied, “That’d be nice.” We continued on the path up to this ledge that overlooked the whole town. It was like you could see everything from up there. I felt like I feel now, except I’m actually floating above the clouds. His gaze landed on the ocean, to the farthest reaches that you could see. “I’ve always wondered what’s out there.” He told me as I watched a group of children play. I stared out into the deep blue ocean as well. “Well, whaddya say we find an island to own?”_   
_After that, we loaded up a boat with our things and headed out to see the world. After a few months, an island was seen in the distance. Zeref wanted to turn away in a new direction because the island was probably already taken, but there was something about this one that made us continue. A few days passed with the island in sight, and we quickly arrived. Surprisingly, no one was there or had claimed it for themselves. So, we decided to call our island “Gerneelia” because of the huge amount of Neelia stones (Horn-colored smooth stones) on the island._   
_Zeref built a home for us to live in on the north side of Gerneelia with a garden and everything. It was absolutely spectacular. Especially the carrots he grew. They were bright orange and packed with an amazing taste and lots of nutrients. A regular of carrot cake, carrot sticks and much more that dealt with the vegetable were passed around our home regularly. But there was this one carrot that he was really proud of. It was almost golden and very special to him. He told me that on our one year anniversary, we would eat that special carrot together._   
_But it’s too bad because I never got to enjoy that moment. The rabbits had gotten to it before he had. That morning, he got up, ate breakfast, and walked outside with a straw basket. I watched him through the kitchen window. But then he stormed back inside because of something that he had seen outside. I went to greet him at the door and see what was wrong. “It’s gone!” He screamed at me. “Those damned bunnies got to it!” I wanted to see what had happened outside so I ran to the carrot patch. Carrots were shredded and tossed around and I could see why he was so upset. When I turned around, Zeref was there, steaming. He was pretty nice and calm most of the time, but I had never seen him that mad. He went over to the patch and huffed. “Zeref, it’s fin-” “It’s not fine!” He interrupted. “I grew this carrot for you, Mavis!” I was shocked. My husband had never had any mood swing as bad as this._   
_He walked to the side of the huge cliff that we lived on, blowing off some steam. He turned back to me again, his foot got entangled in some leftover wire. “Calm down! It doesn’t matter!” I pleaded. “It does matter.” He muttered to himself. “I swear, no one is ever coming onto this land AGAIN!” I gulped as he fell backward after trying to walk to me. Perhaps this is the hardest part to write. It was like slow motion for me. His body swung backward and he landed on the very edge of the cliff. Trying to get off the wire attached to it, he shook his foot. I caught my breath for a moment. Then his hand slipped. “ZEREF!!” I screamed. And I watched the love of my life fall off of a cliff over a carrot._   
_After that, I had grown to be depressed. The color had been drained from me and my life. Most days I would mope around the island and stare at my feet. I had gotten very lonely after a few weeks and longed for someone else to be there with me. Then one day as I was pacing around Gerneelia, a paper flew through the air and stuck to my face. I was surprised for a second while I took the paper off of my cheek. It read “For God sakes, Mavis, cheer up.” I was kind of confused so I looked around. Seeing nothing, I continued on my walk._   
_As I walked around the island and back to my house, a faint yellow glow showed up in the distance. ‘What is it now?’ I asked myself. Slowly, I made my way to the weird light on the island and thought it looked familiar. When I got there, I realized the reason it looked familiar. There was a whole village standing in front of me! Lanterns were strung across the houses and children played kickball. It knocked the air out of me. Where did this village suddenly come from?_   
_Then I knew. It was Zeref._   
_Over the next century, I spent my time watching over this gift from Zeref. I watched the kids grow up and have children of their own and I read stories to the curious bunch of four-year-olds. But everyone eventually runs out of time. I was happy then because I could finally see Zeref again. All I asked was if the villagers could bury me with my book of observations, or in other words, this book so that I could take it with me to show Zeref everything that had happened in our village and conclusions I had made about the world._   
_When I died, my book did come with me, but Zeref was nowhere to be seen. I looked everywhere for him. That is until I finally found him. Zeref is trapped on half of Gerneelia. He has no way out and nowhere to go. What’s worse is that over the years it seems like he’s been taken over by his fears. Sometimes he even attacks his own village! I’ve been trying everything to save him, but I’ve come to the conclusion of just one possible task I can not do even if I try my best._   
_I will only trust this in the hands of my people_______________

~~~~~~~

The “e” swerved off of the page like the writer had been disturbed or had dropped the book. After that, it was just blank pages. Lucy didn’t know quite what to think of this weird entry. Levy or Wendy might know, but Wendy was fast asleep and Levy was out exploring. She looked through the window and saw the glossy dome surrounding Gerneelia again. Did this have to do with Zeref or Mavis? And what did it mean by “I will only trust this in the hands of my people.” Was Jellal part of Mavis and Zeref’s village?  
Lucy was disturbed by her thoughts when several people came tumbling into the Flower-house. Levy, Gajeel, and Erza. As they walked across the creaky floorboards they woke up everyone else who was peacefully sleeping in hope to get some rest themselves. “Hey,” Lucy whispered to Levy. “Hey, Lu.” “What’s going on?” Asked Wendy, rubbing her eyes. “Well, we didn’t find anything yet.” Gray opened his eyes. “Natsu and the others are still looking for stuff but we decided that we’d better come back.” Lucy rubbed the side of the book, wondering if she should tell Levy about it. Wendy helped Levy climb into their hammock. A bluish glow emitted from the book. “Wait,” Lucy said. Everyone except Juvia who was dozing off looked at her. “Do that again.”


	12. Highlights

Wendy grabbed Levy’s hand again while Lucy stared at the book. “Look Lu, we don’t have time for this.” Wendy yawned. “I’m tired. Can we just go to sleep?” Lucy stared intensely at the book. “What is it?” Levy asked after Lucy didn’t respond. “What’s happening now?!” Asked Gajeel, clearly frustrated. Gray crossed the room to sit next to Lucy as Levy hoisted herself up into the hammock. “It’s just that…” Gray’s eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t see what’s so special about this book Lucy.” Lucy sat up straight as everyone came over to look at the weird book. “Well, every time Wendy and Levy hold hands or something, this book glows.” Levy looked at Lucy like she’d lost her mind. “Are you sure it’s not just the moonlight from the window?” Levy and Wendy’s shoulders touched as Levy bent down. The book glowed again for just a second “I’m going back to bed.” Gray said, tired out of his mind. Levy stood up straight and yawned, then took Wendy back to their hammock. “Wait...so you guys really can’t see it?” Lucy asked. “What is there to see?” 

Erza was propped up against the circular wall of the Flower-house observing from a distance. She didn’t see any glow come from the book either. Had Lucy lost her mind? “You must be tired, Lucy. Get some re-.” Erza stiffened up. “Hey Erza, you okay?” Gajeel noticed her stance. Erza slid down the wall, thoughts filling her brain. The things she said just came out without any control. “Lucy, are you on page 252 of the book?” She asked with almost no emotion. “Yeah?” Lucy questionably answered. “Levy, Wendy, join hands.” “Why?” “Just do it.” Wendy and Levy held each other’s hands. “Do you see any glow Lucy, specifically blue.” Lucy glanced over at Erza. “So I’m not crazy after all,” Lucy said, meaning yes. “There’s...there are words, no, highlights right?” “Erza what are you babbling on about? Everyone knows that Lucy’s tire-” “Sure thing Erza.” Lucy interrupted Levy. Everyone else was just watching and wondering what happened to Erza or what was happening in general. “They highlight the…” Erza stumbled for a minute and closed her eyes. “Letters in words,” Lucy answered for her, then got up to sit next to Erza. 

Erza couldn’t quite tell what was happening to her. All of a sudden she felt a weird presence and then information was being crammed into her brain like she had known it...for a long time. The info that was being given to her was like a long term memory that her mind was trying desperately to restore. “Yes, ok.” Erza opened her eyes again confidently. “Give me the highlighted letters in order.” She ripped a piece of paper out of her pocket and took out ink in a jar and a pen from her satchel. Erza opened the ink and dipped her pen inside. Lucy started. “T, O, space…..” 

“What’s going on Levy?” Wendy asked her. Levy shrugged and kept watching the ruckus slightly having hope that something good would come out of it. She sighed and fell back onto the hammock, letting go of Wendy’s hand. Lucy stopped. “Continue…” Erza said, using quick hand motions as well. “They’ve disappeared,” Lucy said. Levy cut in. “Ok guys, cut the crap and sleep already! We can deal with this in the morning.” Lucy yawned and shut the book, giving in. She was tired and couldn’t stand to keep her eyes open one more second. But still, Lucy wanted to know what was the deal with this weird book. 

Erza had seemed to snap out of her weird sudden trance and go back to being calm again. A few minutes later she was sound asleep against the wall of the flower house. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, so it's short...but you can't blame me cuz I was at camp the whole week miserably trying to survive.


	13. The Golden Message

Natsu ran through the early morning in a hurry. He was rapidly trying to get something to defend himself, something to use. That’s when Natsu realized that the place he was looking for laid right in front of him. He climbed up the vine ladder and snuck into the Flower-house in dawn’s light. “Come on where is it.” He muttered to himself. Natsu searched through his bag, but couldn’t find his knife. ‘Oh yeah.’ He thought, ‘It’s with Erza.’   
Natsu found Erza peacefully sleeping against the wall. He didn’t want to wake her up because this was his shining moment to prove to the crew….erm...Mirajane and Cana that he was worthy of being their captain. He just had to defeat this weird shiny beast that was coming after them. Thankfully, the Flower-house was nearby so that Natsu could grab his knife and use it on this weird animal. He found it in Erza’s bag. A few things slipped out while Natsu was rummaging through it, but that didn’t really matter.   
He grasped his knife and jumped over the Flower-house's railing. Natsu landed hard on his heels, but he kept running, only to be met by the rest of the group, Cana, and Mirajane. “Where the heck did you go?” Cana asked. “To get a knife.” Natsu said in a sort of “duh” manner. “Ugh. Let’s go.” Mirajane pointed to the Flower-house. She was light-hearted and kind when she had energy, but Mirajane was a misery without sleep.  
“Wait, but what about the thing?” Natsu asked, catching up with them as they nearly fell on their faces trampling over poisonous plants. “What thing Captain?! Be more clear when you talk to me!!” Natsu didn’t mind the rudeness in her voice. “Oh,” Mirajane said, knowing now what he was relating to. “I fought it off.”   
As they hurried to the Flower-house, Natsu recalled the story in his head. They had just been walking back from a whole night of work with nothing to show when Natsu had seen this weird glowing cave. So he decided to check it out. Mirajane had been unknowingly acting out a great impression of Levy, and Cana just wanted to go back to the Flower-house. It was a lot of exercise for someone who slept and drank most of her life. But this weird creature leaped out of the cave, scaring everyone half-to-death. Natsu and the other 2 ran for their lives until they found a safe place to hide. Natsu, being the one who wanted to save the day all of the time, decided to run back to the Flower-house and grab a knife that was just about harmless. (Seriously...although it was pretty good at defending yourself from other humans, the dainty knife couldn’t kill something that was twice your size.) He just sort of disappeared. And when he had gotten back Mirajane had slain it. Although Mirajane defeating that thing was doubtful, Natsu chose to just forget it.   
Cana struggled to get up the ladder, but Mirajane forcefully pushed her up in the rage of not getting any sleep. Natsu just followed slowly, then crept into the dark room. “Well, that was a long da- ARGH!” Mirajane sighed as Natsu slipped on the floor. Thankfully his (insert “Dragon”) cry wasn’t loud enough to wake up everyone else. Natsu landed on his arm and clenched his jaw. “For Makarov’s sakes, pick up your crap would ya?” He hissed silently at Erza. She just stared back at him with her peaceful sleeping face.   
Natsu slowly got back up, his body feeling heavier than usual. It was probably his lack of sleep.   
A white slip of paper was visible beneath his foot. Natsu saw this out of the corner of his eye, then bent down to pick it up. “Stupid thing. I must’ve slipped on it.” He muttered for like the 3rd time that night. Natsu turned the paper over and saw this weird message. To him, it was pretty much useless because he never went to school and learned how to read. Mirajane and Cana were already dreaming when Natsu sat down to sleep. He had just dropped the paper on a weird book next to Lucy.   
Natsu had no idea that what he’d done would save the whole crew from this mess.  
Morning came early for the group. Of course, no one wanted to get up when Levy took a metal spoon and saucepan, then started banging on it. “Alright, everyone. We have a big day ahead of us. Get up!” When no one got up, Levy sighed and stepped outside. She had her eyes closed and breathed in and out deeply. Levy often did this to calm her nerves and relieve her stress. Strawberries were in season, so all around the island, it smelled of sweetness. When she opened them, she expected to see the delicate ocean waves reflecting the sun, but all of that was fogged out because of that stupid dome thing that had somehow made its way around the entire island.   
“Hey, Levy.” Erza appeared at the doorway of the Flower-house. When Levy saw her, Erza came up to join Levy at the railing. “Good morning.” She turned to look out at the barrier as well. “Don’t you think this is weird?” Erza asked Levy. “It’s Zeref’s fault. He’s probably mad that others like you are on this island.” She replied. Erza thought. “Isn’t Zeref the one who married that lady, Mavis?” Levy turned to her. “You mean the founder of the village?” Erza shrugged. Levy thought now. “But if you lived on the mainland, how would you know about Zeref and Mavis?” “Well, I used to hear the ladies at my orphanage talk about how weird they were. It’s like they went off somewhere to explore. No one ever heard of them again so I just thought no one cared about it or they were dead.”   
Inside the Flower-house Lucy turned over on her side. She was a very light sleeper ever since the crew came to the island. If anything happened, she couldn’t miss it. Originally, Lucy was woken by the Levy commotion, but now she just tossed and turned in her hammock, listening to Levy and Erza talk. She needed to tell them about Mavis and Zeref so at least they could understand. But Lucy couldn’t help but think there was something missing to the story. Everything around her had suddenly gotten so weird. She was the missing princess of Fiore, a foggy matter had sort of eaten Gerneelia whole, that weird library and the man who had been chasing them, the emerald-colored book, Mavis and Zeref, Erza’s sudden outburst, the line that swerved off of the page. What does this all lead up to? What does it mean?  
As Lucy stared at the green book on the floor with unanswered questions, she saw that the paper from last night was laid perfectly in the center of the book. It was slightly odd that someone (especially from their group) had set the paper perfectly on top of the book. Lucy decided she’d check out what they’d done with the message because last night Erza was the only one to see it in her trance that she probably didn’t even remember. She swung her legs over to the ground and stood up to stretch.   
Lucy crossed the room, her eyes on the paper. While she was stepping over the strewn about sleeping bodies, the paper shimmered gold. Lucy finally had gotten to the other side of the room and had picked up the paper when she realized the letters on the paper ended in gold.   
Erza’s lettering was “To crack the spell you must be brave Lucy. You must defeat my husband Zeref to be rewarded with many things. All curses on this island will be broken if you just follow what I say to do. You have to release me and my husband so we can be happy. So you can be happy too.” ‘That must have been where we stopped last night.’ Lucy thought. In the shiny gold lettering, it read “When the sun reaches the middle of the sky, enter the cave near Gerneelia village. I’m sure Levy will help you out with finding the village if you don’t already know where it is by now. Find the special Neelia stone and trap Zeref inside. You have to do this Lucy for your and my sake.”  
Below the paragraph was a single name. “- Jellal” and then off to the side it said “The barrier will fade and your ship will come back Erza. I recited the last half of the message for you because I don’t think you could handle any more of the job. I can finally be free of this book now that you and your friends are going to release Zeref! I miss you Erza. Stay strong.”   
Lucy was completely puzzled at this. Why was there a message to her and Erza? Who was Jellal and why did he finish the message for Erza? All she knew is that in order to save everything, she had to follow this sketchy message. For all she knew it could be Zeref tricking them into going into his trap. She got up and decided it was time to tell someone about this.

~~~~~~~~

“So what do you suppose we do?” Gray asked. Lucy had gathered everyone up in a group at 10 to discuss everything that was happening on the island. “Well, it says everything would be resolved but I’m not so sure about it. The reward seems kind of like bait for a trap.” Lucy replied. “That reward is what we need to get out of here guys. What if it’s real? We can’t just leave it there!” Natsu exclaimed. “Juvia thinks Natsu is right. If the book was in an old library and it has all of these documents of someone’s life inside it, it seems real enough to Juvia.” Levy turned to Erza who had been silent since she had read the note. “What do you think Erza?” When Erza didn’t look up, Mirajane poked her hoping to snap her out of her dream world. “What is it?” Erza looked up and around. Levy repeated her question.“Oh, um, well only Jellal could have written that. I know that no one here knows my back story, but Zeref for sure couldn’t know it. I sensed sincerity in those words and honestly, I think we should go check it out.”  
“If there’s a way out of this, I want to take it. Guys, I just want to go home.” Gray said. Natsu shook his head. For one of the first times in his life, Natsu actually agreed with Gray. “Well everyone,” Said Gajeel, rising to his feet in the back of the group, “I think it’s about time we go and take care of this lunatic Zeref.”


	14. Levy and The Cave

“How do you do this every day?!” Gray asked Lucy, out of breath as they were running side-by-side. “What?” Lucy was perfectly fine. “Y’know, running and walking everywhere?” “Um, I’m just used to it I guess.” Images of her running day after day from a Darkle replayed in Lucy’s mind. “Why? Do you not run or walk every day?” She asked Gray because for Lucy it wasn’t normal not to do daily exercise. “Heh. Um,” Gray said, “I was on a ship for four months.” Even though Lucy didn’t get it, it wasn’t like her to bombard someone with questions.

Gray soon fell behind with Natsu and Erza who were at the right pace for him. Lucy, Levy, and Wendy ran in the very front, Natsu, Erza and Gray in the middle, Gajeel behind them being a lone ranger, and finally the struggling to breathe rest of the crew led by Mirajane. The only reason the crew was so motivated to run is because of the possibility that they might get their ship back and leave Gerneelia. From the amount of pestering they had done to Levy about it over the past few days, Lucy could see they wanted to go home pretty bad. ‘But of course,’ Lucy thought ‘in at least some way I won’t ever get to see all of the people I’m with right now as a full group again.’

This simple decision was causing anxiety for Lucy along with the Zeref ordeal and the strange man in the weird library. She could either go off and help one set of friends as being the princess and ruling over their land, or she could choose to stay here with Wendy and Levy and pretend nothing happened. Part of Lucy wanted to go and see what was out there, what her old home looked like from those past six years, who she was. But it would be too selfish to just leave Levy and Wendy. Plus, she would miss Gerneelia.

Levy stopped running and Wendy did the same. “Ok guys. We’re here.” The rest of the group caught up and saw just exactly where they were. There was Levy’s old village (that looked like piles of ashes) with a few strewn around unwanted boards and old hay that somehow didn’t burn in the fire. To the left of them was the big hill where they had picked fruit and beans. The trees were bare now so you couldn’t recognize the place. Levy lead them as they trekked up a rocky hill across from the village and then to a big ledge with a huge rock sticking out of the side of the hill. She sighed, remembering the memory from long ago that took place here. “Well, here it is.” she stood in front of the rock. “I don’t see any caves around here Levy,” Lucy said, confused. “It’s not noon yet,” Levy replied. Lucy silently went ‘oh’. They waited and waited and waited getting more bored by the minute. “Are you sure we’ve got the right place?” Cana asked impatiently. She leaned against the side of the gigantic rock. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s here,” Levy responded, glancing at the sun quickly so she wouldn’t damage her eyes. “Well, pretty sure and-” Lucy saw that the sun was now overhead. “sure are two different thing- Woah!” The big rock’s center pushed in and Cana immediately pushed away when she felt a change. The arch-like shape pushed into the rock, and then broke apart, sliding into the visible cave’s walls.

Everyone except for the Gerneelia residents gasped at how pretty it was. Inside, green and blue stones were spaced out all over the ground. (It looked like what would happen if you dropped emeralds and sapphires into wet concrete.) Along the sides of this beautiful path were pools that had the same magical blue glowing water from the moon pool in the tropical forest. Its blue light shimmered on the cave walls as a natural lighting effect.

To the side of the entrance, a small rectangular place pushed in as well. “And there we go.” Natsu decided to walk in first but was met by a clear forcefield. “Ugh.” He said, rubbing his head, “I hate these things.” Mirajane took the book from Lucy and placed it in the rectangular slot, making it glow and the force field vanish. No one questioned what had happened because they had no idea what anything was any more or how anything happened. It just did.

The crew walked inside the cave cautiously at first, but then they slowly became a little more comfortable with it. Gajeel started talking about how rich he’d be if he had all of these gemstones and Levy was telling Wendy why the water was blue. The group continued down the cave path for a long time until they came towards two different tunnels. “Are you serious?” Said Lucy. She didn’t think anyone wanted to split up but they had to or they wouldn’t get that far. “Okay, I’m going to do this fast guys because we only have until midnight. Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Erza, Wendy. Go left. The rest of the group comes with me on the right. We’ll meet back here in fifteen minutes.” Lucy thought about Levy as she went with her group. Levy was getting to be almost leader-like.

Usually, Levy would be fun and games. She would get mad when you went somewhere unknown, and she would talk with you during dinner time about what you did that day. Wendy had lots of cool events in her story leading up the climax, but after that, she usually just chickened out. Levy made up the rest of her story just for fun. Lucy smiled sadly. In the last week, so much had changed and she couldn’t keep up. Levy was different, and Wendy was quieter. Erza was too caught up in things to speak to Lucy about everything even though she’d understand, Juvia wouldn’t even listen to her “rival” speak, Cana was drunk most of the time, and Mirajane was always caught up in too much gossip or drama. So in a way, Lucy felt like she couldn’t talk to anyone that could relate to her feelings as a girl.

Natsu thought about what the reward for this was going to be. It had to be real and they had to get their ship back, but he mostly just wanted to kick someone’s ass. Gray and Wendy were caught up in all the things that could possibly happen to them while on the journey while Erza thought about Jellal and what relation that he had to this island. No one spoke.

But then, Lucy saw a light.

“Do you guys see that?” She pointed at the end of the tunnel where a faded bluish light could be seen. Wendy nodded and then spoke to Lucy in front of the group for one of the first times. “Do you think it could be the stone?” “Let’s check it out.” The group sped up their pace towards the light. Then finally, they came to a stop. The Neelia stone was right there, in the same cave room as them.

Only, the stone was completely across a huge drop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh gosh. 
> 
> I'm really sorry everyone. The short update came a day late. I just have some writer's block and a lot on my schedule so the chapter might have been slightly boring.
> 
> Bye, everyone!
> 
> ~HelloInternet


	15. The Neelia Stone

“That  _has_  to be it,” Erza said, containing her excitement. Lucy nudged Wendy to go find Levy who was finding mysterious things of her own.

Levy and her group found themselves walking down a darker tunnel. There weren’t many water pools on the side and the gemstones were getting tightly packed together. It almost looked like a stained glass window that you’d see in churches or a collage that you’d make in art class. “I want Gray-sama.” Juvia whined, clutched onto Levy. In Levy’s mind, this was making up for what she had previously said to her. They walked a little more. Gajeel wanted to scream because all they did all day was walk here, walk there, oh let’s just walk some more and run along the beach. It was exhausting, but something about Levy made him want to keep going. Every time something got boring, she would either make comments or excuses. Levy challenged him, and, in a way, motivated Gajeel too. Now that Levy was on his mind, he stared at her from behind.

Just then, a spot above Levy started to crack. Cracks twisted and turned wherever they pleased. “Stay back!” Levy yelled, noticing it quickly. She extended her arms and pushed everyone back. Luckily, the piece of rock fell directly in front of her. “The hell?” Levy cautiously looked up into the hole on the ceiling and tried to look around. Juvia jumped and it became very quiet, but Levy thought it was just the on edge feeling in the air. The hole was pitch black. Figures. “It’s just weathering,” Levy said as she turned to face the crew. “Nothing to b- “ And there in front of her was a glowing white orb. “What the bird is going on now?” It just hovered there, emitting light onto the walls of the cave. Then an echo was heard. “Oh, forgive me, adventurers.” A woman’s voice came from the sphere. “Who the heck are you??!!” Levy said, sick of being in her jumpy mood. “My name’s Mavis. You might know me as the author of-” “You mean you're one of the founders of Gerneelia?!” Levy exclaimed. The others just watched the strange sight of Levy talking to a ball. “Yes.” “Oh, Ms. Mavis I’m terribly sorry for talking to you like that.” “It’s completely alright,” Mavis said with a giggle.

“Levy!!” Wendy’s voice echoed down the cave. Levy turned to see Wendy and rushed up to her. “Wendy, what happened, is something wrong?” “We- hah we found the stone.” Levy’s eyes lit up and she motioned for everyone to come with her. But when she looked behind her again, Mavis was gone.

~~~~~~~

Lucy, Erza, and Gray were strategizing while Natsu was being impatient and trying out the rope ladder that reached across a big drop of who knows how far when everyone showed up. “We’re here,” Levy said, out of breath. The new arrivals took some time to look around at their new surroundings. “Are you serious? A rope bridge?” Cana held herself up with the help of a rock. “Oh, don’t worry Cana, you don’t have to go across,” Erza mentioned to her, noticing. “We have a plan,” Lucy added. Levy nodded as a sign of “please tell”. “So we were thinking that because the bridge is old and rickety and probably won’t sustain all of our weight together, we would send three people over,” Lucy said. “Me, because we think that it’s right for me to hold the stone, and Erza and Gray because they are some of the strongest people out of us.” “Hold it,” Natsu said. “Erza and _GRAY_??!!” “Well, yeah,” Lucy replied. “Gray can’t go!!” “Why not?” “He’s, he’s, NOT THE CAPTAIN!” “And that means…?” Erza asked. “Well, he’s not strong enough!” “Shut up flame-brain!” Gray said, losing his cool (haha ya see what I did there? no one cares Author-Chan). “You shut up popsicle!” Erza was there in no time. She knocked Gray and almost Natsu out with head-to-head contact. Of course, Juvia was glaring at Erza. Natsu stood up woozily. “I wwwooooonnnnn…..!” He almost looked like Cana. Then fell onto Lucy who caught him. “So as Lucy was saying before we were rudely interrupted,” Erza shot a glance at Natsu “is that Lucy, me, and I guess now Natsu are going to go over there,” She pointed at the stone. “grab the gemstone, and get out of here. The rest of you start heading back and wait at the entrance. We’ll catch up with you.” Juvia draped Gray over her shoulder. “But what about you guys? Will you be safe?” Levy asked, mainly looking at Lucy. “Don’t worry Levy,” Erza said. “Lucy’s in good hands.”

~~~~~~~

Soon the others were making their way back to the start and Erza’s group was beginning their plan. Natsu had almost fully become stable and Lucy made Erza apologize. Natsu did save her anyway. “I”ll go first just to see if the bridge is usable. You guys can follow when I get across.” Lucy nodded but Natsu didn’t say a word. He wanted the dangerous job. Erza took a step and leaned on a board. It creaked but didn’t break. She held onto the ropes for at least a little support while she tested boards. Some broke and some didn’t. But what Lucy was really worried about is the three boards in the center that all broke in a row. Erza had to jump across them to get to the other side. She finally made it across and got a close up of the special Neelia stone.

Erza gave Natsu and Lucy the signal so they started across. They were careful to step over the holes in their path and balance well. It was all fine for Lucy until they had come to the long jump. Previously, she had participated in contests with Levy and Wendy on jumping the farthest, but she would always lose. These things were not Lucy’s specialty. Natsu jumped across and his landing shook the ladder. Lucy gripped the ropes. Her palms got sweaty. “Come on Lucy! You can do it!” Erza cheered, noticing her shaking. Natsu turned around and noticed too. He held out his hand and gave her a reassuring smile. She grabbed his hand and leaped through the air. ‘Almost...there…’ Lucy expected to feel the board beneath her feet but she felt something different. It wasn’t air… She opened her eyes to be met by Natsu's. They were a sort of muted green. She had never noticed that before. Then Lucy realized that she was standing on his feet. Behind her, a drop that probably went on forever. Lucy was more focused on the drop than Natsu so she swung her arms around his neck, scared. Meanwhile, Erza leaned against the cave wall. She showed a hint of a smile. Two more lovers had entered the scene. Mirajane really was a world-class shipper. Natsu blushed just a little at the out-of-nowhere act. He was usually quite dense so for something like this to get through to him was surprising.

Natsu grabbed Lucy’s waist and set her onto the next board so that this one didn’t break. Neither of them said a word until they reached the other side. Lucy stepped up to the stone on the pedestal. This was it. It would all be over. She set her hands on both sides of the stone and raised it up cautiously. Nothing happened. It was pure silence. But then the cave started shaking and everyone lost most of their hope.

Levy was struggling because she wanted to go get Lucy the moment it happened. But Gajeel pulled her along. They had to get out of there. Rocks started falling from the ceiling as Erza, Lucy and Natsu leaped across the bridge. It all happened in slow motion then. A sharp rock fell down over the side of the bridge. And the rope snapped. Erza had made it the other side while Natsu and Lucy, who were holding hands, jumped. Erza caught Natsu’s outstretched hand and started pulling with all of her might. Natsu pulled himself up and his knees touched the ledge. But then, he slipped.

Causing everyone to fall off of the edge, into the drop of darkness.


	16. The Plank of the S.S. FairyTail

It seemed like they were falling forever. The wind rising their hair up, their bodies slicing through the air. And then they hit the water. It was a large circular pool of blue water that looked like it was made for people who had fallen down. Erza broke the surface first, and then the others. Above them, a giant rock was stuck between the walls of the hole, conveniently blocking other rocks to fall down onto them, but guaranteeing no chance out. Erza looked back down and started swimming for the side of the pool. Natsu and Lucy did as well. Who knows what could be in there with them.  

Erza lifted herself up out of the water, her clothes weighing her down with the amount of water that they had absorbed. She raised a finger to her lips for everyone to be quiet. Lucy was still gripping onto Natsu’s hand as they rose from the water. Noticing, and remembering Levy’s statement from a few days ago, Lucy recoiled almost immediately. 

Everyone except for Lucy had to take something off in order to be able to move around or at least stand. She just stood there squeezing out the ends of her knee-length white dress. Erza and Natsu tossed their jackets into a wet heap and looked around. It looked like they were standing in a ballroom. Colorful patterns were all over the smooth marble floor and the ceiling had lots of carefully painted pictures. Lucy had never seen something like this, but it looked so familiar to her. 

Erza carefully walked towards the center of the room, squinting to see around. ‘There has to be a way out’, she thought. Natsu followed, but Lucy stayed glued to the edge of the room. She couldn’t help but feel like they were being watched. “Hey, Guys?” She whisper-shouted. “Doesn’t it feel a little weird in here?” “What?” Natsu shouted in her direction. Erza punched him in the arm as blinding lights came on. Natsu, Lucy, and Erza felt like how you would when classroom lights come on after an hour documentary. Then they dimmed a little and into blue light. “Agh. What was that for?” Natsu asked, pretending to be innocent. Just then, they heard a shriek come from the edge of the room.  _ Lucy _ . Natsu looked around almost immediately. “Where’s Lu-” “Welcome.” Said a booming voice that came from everywhere. Natsu’s heart stopped.  _ No. Not again.  _ “Well, well, well, Natsu Dragneel and Erza Scarlet. Oh, and not to mention Princess Heartfilia.” “Where is she??!!” Natsu yelled. Erza was confused and didn’t turn her back on any direction. “You’ll see soon enough.” Natsu clenched his jaw. She was so important. Not only to him but to the whole kingdom of Fiore. “But first, let me tell you a story.” “There’s no time for stupid stories!!” Natsu yelled back. 

“Oh, I think you would find it interesting.” The voice got sickly sweet. “It’s about your comrade and the S.S. FairyTail.” Erza froze. ‘How did he know?’ She knew that he was going to make her listen to a living nightmare, and she could do nothing about it. 

“Around eighteen years ago, your lookout, Erza Scarlet was born. Her mom instantly rejected her and her Dad who had been taking care of her died. At the age of six, Erza was thrown into an orphanage. The first day was the hardest. Erza learned that teasing was very common, especially for her. She would spend her days hiding in a closet from the bullies and nights sneaking around to complete her chores. It wasn’t a very pleasant life for a child. No sleep, hardly any food, and work. Then almost a year later she met a kid named Jellal. He was sent to the closet to grab an old mop when he found Erza curled up in a ball. “Hey, are you ok?” Jellal asked. Erza looked up at him. “Please don’t hurt me. I’ll do your chores, anything!” Jellal leaned his mop against a wall and leaned down. He held out his hand. “Come on, I’ll protect you.” Jellal didn’t force her out of the closet, but day after day he would bring Erza food so that she didn’t starve. During the nights he would help her with her chores. By the time she was fourteen, Erza had developed deep feelings for Jellal. One day she actually came out of the closet. A few weeks after that Erza was sent with some of her bullies to the market. Jellal was sent out alone for an easy task of buying a few gallons of water. “Hey Erza, do you like ships?” One of the bullies near her asked. Erza nodded slowly. The three others glanced at each other, planning something sick. As soon as they got near the ship docking area to go back to the orphanage, Erza was pushed up onto the only ship that was empty. There was hardly anyone around when she was forced onto the plank of the ship. Jellal was nearby and happened to look over at the ship. It was his dream to have the S.S. FairyTail. Someday he and Erza would sail that ship freely together like Zeref and Mavis. Then he saw something. Jellal dropped his cart handle and rushed to the ship. He ran past everything, just needing to get there. Erza was being cornered into stepping onto the plank. There was a huge drop to a lot of pointy rocks. These kids didn’t know what they were dealing with. Jellal got up behind one and punched them in the jaw. Erza was surprised to find that he was there. The two others started punching and kicking him. Erza fell to the ground after trying to help Jellal. Jellal was pushed to the plank instead. Erza didn’t stop trying to help him. When she pushed past the kids, she saw it. One of them pushed Jellal off. He fell down slowly in her eyes. And then landed on the rocks, his last sad smile fading from his face. “JELLAL!!” Erza’s scream rang through all of the kid’s ears, making them scramble off of the ship. Erza ran down to the rocks where Jellal was but he wasn’t there anymore. It was like nothing ever happened. Erza started sobbing. A few hours later a crew member found her. He trained her to become part of the crew and to fend for herself. Then she joined the FairyTail crew and this is where she is today.” 

Erza sat silently on the floor. Her arms were wrapped around her legs, and she stared emotionless at the wall. This story brought back so many memories. She told herself ‘He’s just trying to make me weak. It’s in the past.’ But her emotions got in the way nonetheless. Natsu was swirled up in his own little dilemma, remembering his Dad. Then Erza got up. “Jellal was a great person. I don’t know how you know this story, or what you think you know, but you can’t use Jellal against me. I don’t care what you have to say or add on because it already happened. It’s in the past. Just give us Lucy back.” 

“You want to see her?” The voice asked. Natsu nodded confidently. A light shone on a girl standing on a glass surface with a ball and chain attached to her. A hammer was floating above her. Under her, twelve feet of water.

“The stone or the princess Natsu?”


	17. Past the Rocks

Levy pounded on the boulder in fury and rage, a single tear rolling down her cheek. Wendy was hugging her from behind as a sign of comfort. Gajeel couldn’t help but feel guilty. If they had stopped, their fate was sealed. It was also a loss for the crew. Their captain and strongest member were probably dead or on the verge of it. Or maybe, they were still alive. He hoped so.

“What the heck Gajeel?!” Levy said out of emotional anger. She battered him about the sudden loss for the next half hour. Meanwhile, everyone else either sat against the wall of the cave or leaned against a tree. Levy cared about Lucy like family, so everyone could understand her discomfort. Natsu and Erza were family to the crew too, but they hadn’t known each other their whole life. Wendy eventually gave up and left Levy to her own disappointment. By the time Levy stopped and accepted what had happened, Gray was slightly aroused and Cana had fallen asleep (Don’t ask how XD).

“It’s absolutely hopeless now,” Levy muttered from behind her knees. “You won’t ever get off of this stupid island, the translucent thing” She pointed to the dome structure over the island. “problem is hopeless, and three people just died!” “We don’t know that!” Mirajane protested. “The whole crew knows for a fact that Natsu and Erza don’t just ‘die’. It takes a whole lot more than that to kill them off unlike a newbie named Lisanna who fell off of the ship a day into the voyage. I’m pretty sure if Lucy has been living on this island for what? 10 years? That she has strength in her too. Don’t sweat it, Levy. Hope is key.”

Almost everyone nodded. Levy sighed and brought her face out from behind her knees. “But what about you guys and the big barrier thing?” If Erza were there, it would have been her turn to speak. When no one did, Juvia started. “Juvia and probably everyone else thinks that this is more important.” Levy smiled slightly. She just didn’t want to lose anyone else. Her mother was already gone. So were all of her friends from the village. Even though Levy knew that Lucy was probably to blame for everything that had happened over the past decade, she never once held her responsible. Lucy was from the mainland, or Magnolia, Fiore. She was meant to follow the path to the throne. Keeping her here wasn’t Levy’s choice. She had just wound up in a cave...this cave. Levy realized just now that she wanted to keep Lucy out of the fear of losing someone again.

“Thanks. I really need to make it up to you Juvia.” Juvia smiled back at Levy. She didn’t even know what was in store. “So, um, I guess we should probabl-” “Let’s find a way in.” Gajeel interrupted Levy. She stared up at him only to be met by an outstretched hand.

~~~~~~~

“The stone of the princess Natsu?”

Lucy stood overhead the 12 feet of water below her, clearly shaking. The glass cracked a little and she closed her eyes tight. Her mouth became a straight line. Somehow the Neelia stone had made its way above a pit of lava, floating in the air just like the hammer above Lucy’s glass platform. “You’ll have to chose eventually or else this happens.” Natsu turned to face Erza who had weirdly disappeared from his side. She was tied up in the air with a floating knife to her chest. “You’ll have two minutes.”

Erza and Lucy didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say or convince Natsu. It was one of the hardest decisions that he would have to make in his life (I’m talking harder than choosing a restaurant that satisfies your 6 person family).

~~~~~~~

Wendy, Levy, and the rest of the crew made their way around the cave opening. From above to feeling around the sides for secret inscriptions. It wasn’t long before the glowing light showed up. Now, after explaining their situation, everyone was following Mavis because she said that she could help them out with it. They went to the right of the cave opening and ended up turning onto a rocky ledge. Juvia almost fell off but luckily Cana caught her hand.

They ended up at the side of a big rocky wall. The rocky ledge had grown wider and lower, but the sea drop was still there. A stoney pedestal that looked like the one the Neelia stone was on rested in front of the rock wall. If Mavis hadn’t stopped, you would’ve wondered why there was a pedestal there.

“So, in order to get in, we need two people who love each other to hold hands on the plinth.” Juvia and Gray spiked up. Levy and Wendy glanced at each other, and then made their way to the small rocky pillar. Mavis caught them. “Oh, I meant two people from the mainland. I and Zeref were from Fiore so that’s why if you were wondering.” Gray gulped and Juvia twiddled her thumbs. Mirajane, of course, noticed instantly. So the Gruvia rumor had turned out to be true after all. “I think Gray and Juvia should try.” She hinted at them. They both broke into a cold sweat. Juvia swore if Erza told someone-” “I guess we could.” Gray said while rubbing the back of his neck. Juvia’s pupils grew wider as she looked at Gray, trying to process what he just said. “O-okay,” Juvia replied. Levy and Wendy stepped back as Gray and Juvia joined hands on the pedestal. It was kind of awkward because both of their hands were clammy.

The rocks shook and then collapsed after emitting a strange light into the opening behind them. Mavis floated in and the others followed after her. “Oh, and guys?” Mirajane looked back at them. “I don’t think you're supposed to let go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo peoples of the universe. 
> 
> You should be thankful this chapter eventually came out because today I was in a rush from the time I got home from school. Also, I had literally no idea what to call this chapter so thats why the name is kinda weird even though no one actually goes "Past the Rocks"...well except for the ending. 
> 
> I know you guys were wondering what happens with Natsu and that whole ordeal...but I left you with another expansion of the cliffhanger. Don't worry, no one is going to die...*flashback of You Are My Sunshine* Just to make that clear...ahem...But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this week's chapter and yeah. 
> 
> Arigato minna!
> 
> ~Hello_Internet
> 
> Have a happy school year *non-enthusiastically* 
> 
> ...ugh


	18. One Room with a Good Chance of Death

Natsu broke into a cold sweat. Two people that he cared about had just been put into life or death situations. All because of some stupid decision. No one was talking because they were just as shocked as Natsu. Erza knew that her death was most likely to happen because Natsu wasn’t really someone who could make up his mind easily. A knife to her chest, she watched Natsu start to panic. The crew or the princess. Erza already knew which one he was going to pick. Either way, it wasn’t going to end well.

“Time is ticking down Natsu. You better hurry!” Warned Zeref, talking in the sort of happy tone that makes your stomach sick. “Just grab the stone Natsu!” Lucy shouted at him. “Get out of here!” Natsu’s eyes drifted over to Lucy as Zeref chuckled. “I can’t just leave you to die though Lucy! You’re the reason we came here.” Natsu said to her, knowing no way of completing his mission now. “But I’m the one who dragged you into this mess, to begin with.” She paused for a second. “I’m the person that was selfish enough to have the old crew including your father die because of a stupid birthday of mine.”  _She remembered._ Natsu was confused and sad at the same time...flustered with emotions you could say. “So just take the stone and go.” She said, releasing a tear. Erza just hung there, wondering what she had missed.

“No.” Natsu just said it, plain as day. “30 seconds,” Zeref warned. Erza eyed the dagger that was slowly getting closer to her chest. Natsu didn’t quite know at first why it had just come out in his process of thinking. But it did. And then the realization came. “Lucy, I don’t care about that stuff anymore. You shouldn’t either. Like Erza said, the past is the past.” “10...9…” “Choose the gem already!” “I can’t!” “6...5…” The glass cracked. “Natsu!!”

“You’re more important.”

“I choose Lucy.” He said, then exhaled. He could imagine Zeref smirking. “Good choice.” The platform under Lucy cracked and she fell in with a splash. The boundary keeping Natsu back disappeared. Lucy banged on the glass in panic. She was trying to swim up but the ball and chain never disappeared. Erza gasped and started struggling. “It’s fun to watch your fear towards things.” Zeref said, but no one really heard. “Let her out!! You have the stone already...what else do you need??!!” Natsu shouted. “I need a little fun sometimes.” He replied. “Zeref!!” Erza growled through her clenched jaw. Natsu couldn’t take it. He punched the glass, adrenaline coursing through his veins.

His knuckles bloodied but he kept punching. Lucy’s consciousness started to fade. This only triggered more inside of him. “ARGH!” Natsu punched as hard as he could and the glass shattered. A big wave of water erupted from the crack and Lucy flowed with it, into Natsu’s arms. Erza was let down from her arrangement. She massaged her wrists quickly while jogging over to Natsu and Lucy. She placed her hand on Lucy’s weak shoulder. (Imagine them in that one position at the end of Phoenix Priestess) Now all of them were soaked. “What’s your problem?!” She shouted angrily at Zeref, wherever he was. No answer. “I don’t know what kind of sick twisted thing you’re pulling here, but are you finished?” “I dunno. Am I?” He finally replied.

“I hope.”

So I guess that means that you’re ready for the big finale?” Zeref said. “What….hah….big final...hah….e?” Natsu asked in between breaths. The lights went out again. It was pitch black for around five minutes now. Longer than ever before. Natsu felt nervous. Was something happening behind his back? Was something going to leap at the small group and tear them to shreds? All he could do to express this was grip onto Lucy, hoping for the best.

~~~~~~

“So we’re just going to leave them there then?” Levy asked Mirajane. Gray was second in command of their boat from what she’d heard and leaving one of their strongest members behind was kind of stupid. “Yup.” She smiled sweetly and innocently then jogged ahead to talk to Cana. Levy huffed. “Whatever.”

They were coming to an ending of the cave. Although it wasn’t emitting a light like how most of the cave halls ended. They heard someone fighting in disagreement with someone else at the end of the hall too. When Levy heard the name “Lucy” she raced to the opening, not stopping for anyone.

~~~~~~

“Natsu…” Lucy murmured into his shoulder. Erza was busy trying to see in the dark but it was hopeless. Then a bright light shined upon a sword. Kind of like a spotlight. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok...yes I know the update was short. 
> 
> BUT YOU GET TO LOOK FOWARD TO THE FINALE NEXT WEEK
> 
> and yes....I'm drafting another story.
> 
> This time I'm thinking I'll change it up a little. Some NaLu....going to be another ship involved (From Fairy Tail) and they might intertwine their stories and it'll be cute. hehe...you have to guess.
> 
> So chillax peeps and have a good Criday (it was intentional)
> 
> ~HelloInternet


	19. Crossed Swords

Warning: Some graphic violence

The sword that was glowing in the sudden spotlight was beautiful. Diamonds were lined up down the handle, and the silver blade looked like i had been polished thousands of times. Natsu edged towards the sword after setting Lucy down on the floor. He reached out for it, but then another hand grabbed the handle faster. Erza stood next to him, the sword now in hand. “Watch Lucy. You need a break.” Natsu wanted to say the same to her, but he obeyed anyway, not knowing exactly why. As soon as Erza clutched the sword in her hand, another light came on.

There stood Jellal.

Erza gasped. Was it really him? She wasn’t sure. Zeref had played too many mind tricks for one day so she didn’t loosen her sword from her hand. She tightened it. And her knuckles turned white.

Natsu and Lucy stood off to one side. Lucy was still out, and Natsu was trying to get her as far away from the fight as possible. They were leaned against the wall when Natsu observed his hands in the dim light. Erza was right. He couldn’t even fight a Fairy Tail crew member in training with these hands. Although he hated admitting it, Natsu was better standing on the sidelines. Then the second light came on and his head shot up to see what it was. The same blue-headed man that had chased them out of the library stood in the light. The right side of his face was illuminated like he was telling a ghost story and his mouth formed a smile. It wasn’t out of happiness though. No, this was the sort of smile that never erased from your mind, the kind of smile that could commit a murder itself.

He started running towards Erza, another sword in hand. “J-Jella-?” “Erza do something already!” Natsu yelled. He swung his sword vertically at her, but Erza caught it with her own, pushing his weapon up and off. Jellal took a few steps back and Erza bit her tongue.  _It’s not real it’s not real._ She made the next move, trying to slice through some of the imposter’s clothing so the face of Jellal would vanish. Erza managed to cut through some fabric, but nothing worked. He lunged at her and their swords crossed. Fake Jellal was leaning toward her ear, and Erza could feel his breath on her cheek. “Beat me.”

Erza knew then for sure he wasn’t real, and this was just an illusion. But she did have an objective which she guessed was the goal of the “big finale”. Beat the loser impersonating Jellal and they’ll be free. Everything will be ok again. Except for the fact that this will be the last time she ever got to see his face. She leaned back into her stance and started fighting him again will all she had.

And then things got rough. Erza started creating scratches on her opponent’s arms. So he got mad at her. They fought some more, and Erza became tired, breathing heavily. “Won’t you just give up?”

“Never,” Erza said through gripped teeth.

There was his chance. Jellal swung his sword below at Erza’s thigh and ended up slashing it. Anything to win. She sucked in air and landed on the ground, wounded. The sword slid from her hand to the edge of the room. Fake Jellal rested on top of Erza’s stomach. She squirmed to get up, but her bloody leg just wouldn’t work. The imposter held his sword above Erza’s neck, ready to puncture it. “Any last words?” Erza couldn’t believe it. She was about to be killed with the image of her best friend’s blood-splattered face the last thing she saw. Erza closed her eyes, waiting for the harsh pain of metal ripping through her throat. But then the weight was lifted off of her torso. Jellal was shoved to the ground. Above her stood Lucy, sword now in her clutches. “Make sure you take care of Natsu.” Is all she said to her. “I’ll do the rest.” Fake Jellal got up and rolled his shoulders. “Ready for another round?”

A couple moments before Erza was slung to the ground Lucy had regained consciousness. She had seen enough to where she knew what was going on. This was why this was her fight. Lucy knew in her heart that she had to set things right because she was the one that had made everything this way in the first place. It was her birthday choice. Sometime in her moments of adrenaline, she had recalled everything that happened before she hit her head on that rock. She remembered. And now she cared a little more than breaking curses.

Lucy swung at Jellal, not knowing what she was doing. Her arms and legs just sort of moved like they had known what to do all along. Lucy found herself in many different stances. Her sword almost got close enough to leave a scratch on her enemy’s stomach. “You’re doing surprisingly well.” Fake Jellal said. A drop of sweat slid down Lucy’s face. “Thanks.” She said plainly and quickly, then continued to try and beat the living hell out of Jellal. Natsu and Erza just watched her, not wanting to interrupt knowing that Lucy would just get mad at them. It  _was_ her fight. And  _she was owning it._

“C’mon Lucy, you can do it!” Erza managed to shout at her. Footsteps were heard from somewhere but Lucy ignored them. She continued to try her hardest.

Until Gray came out of nowhere and punched Jellal in the jaw. Jellal stumbled back and grabbed the side of his face in pain. Mirajane did a flying round-kick and Cana tackled him. Both of their attacks hit the target. Erza and Natsu wanted to help, but Natsu couldn’t leave Erza alone considering they were in this madhouse of a cave. Fake Jellal was on the ground now, and his sword fell out of his reach. Erza smiled to herself. Lucy grabbed the stone from the middle of the room and Cana got off of Jellal. The rest of her friends were pinning him down as Lucy approached, knowing perfectly what she was supposed to do.

And then she did it.

The Neelia stone glowed a bright yellow as the image of Jellal vanished. A gray translucent thing was sucked into the stone and then the stone stopped glowing.

They had done it.

They had caught Zeref.


	20. The Island of Gerneelia

The feel of musty air disappeared when everyone stepped out of the cave and were met with the sky. Lucy smiled, taking in all of the beauty before her. The breeze, the blue sky, the wavy ocean. Gray pulled Juvia close to him and she blushed, then nearly toppled him over. Erza’s arms were hung around Natsu and Gajeel for support. Even though she felt like clenching her jaw, she let out a slight smile. Levy followed Lucy to the edge of the cliff while the others started making their way back to the more lush part of Gerneelia.

Lucy just stood there, clutching the Neelia stone in her hands. This was the key to their happiness, and she had just unlocked it not even a couple minutes ago. Lucy had made up for all of her mistakes. She couldn’t have been happier. But there was one thing that she still had to do, just one more wish to fulfill. Levy stepped beside her. “Hey, Lu.” She said with a spark of excitement in her voice. Lucy replied with the same tone. “Hey.” It was quiet for a few seconds, just the voice of the ocean echoing in their ears. “There’s something I need to tell you.” Levy said. Lucy was about to reply when her eye caught Natsu running towards them. “C’mon guys! There’s a weird light ball talking to us and you’re taking forever!”

~~~~~~~~

“I can’t thank you guys enough.” Said the glowing ball of light named Mavis. The part of the group that wasn’t here previously was a little confused at what exactly this thing was. Wendy felt underneath it. She was weirded out at the feel of air sliding through her fingers and kept her words to herself. “Is there anything I can do for you?” Erza looked at her leg and Natsu thought about the ship. “Aah, I see,” Mavis said unexpectedly. Everyone looked up at the sphere. “What?” Mirajane questioned. Suddenly a big splash was heard from the ocean, spraying seawater all over the group.

Their ship was there. Waving up and down in the ocean. Every single crew member looked at it with wide eyes. They were going home. “The obstacles have been cleared so that you can get home safely,” Mavis said, then spoke again. “As for you Erza, let’s see what we can do with that leg.” She flew to Erza and hovered over her leg which lied flat on the ground. A flash went off from the bottom of the sphere, and by the time everyone looked back, her leg looked as good as new.

Let’s admit it, no one was in awe anymore because of everything weird that had happened on the island of Gerneelia. They were just happy that their look-out could stand again. “Wow, thanks!” Juvia exclaimed. This orb could heal the world. Natsu was beaming because the sight of his ship was back, and it looked better than ever. He smiled to himself. Bring it on Sting.

Lucy’s smile never disappeared from her face. “Well, I guess this belongs to you.” She told Mavis and handed over the yellow-orange stone. As soon as she held out the stone, the orb of light transformed into something else. Something shaped like a human. There she stood. Mavis Vermillion, the creator of Gerneelia. Mavis had long, flowy hair that reached her feet with hair accessories that looked like angel wings. Her beautiful green eyes stared back at Lucy as she took the stone in her hands. She laughed as a man showed up next to her, looking as if he had no emotion. Kind of like an emo.“Where am I?” He asked, then noticed the presence of Mavis. “Mavis!” He got down on his knees and hugged the 5ft woman with passion, tears in his eyes. “How...I mean,....why…?” All she did was motion to the group. “They helped us Zeref. They helped you.” Natsu recoiled at the name of Zeref. He started heading forward, about to throw a punch. “So it was you who hurt Lucy you sick bastar-” Lucy stopped him just in time. “Natsu, he was under a spell, he didn’t mean any of that!” “But--” “NATSU!” Natsu sighed and lowered his punch, eyeing Zeref. He made the ‘I’m watching you’ symbol with his fingers and stepped back a little. “Yeah,” Zeref rubbed the place between his neck and shoulders. “I’m sorry about that.” Erza sighed to herself, knowing what he did to her. In some ways, she wanted to punch him herself, but she knew that it was just the evil that swallowed him whole.

Zeref noticed her.

“Well, thank you again for everything. I really appreciate it.” Mavis said to them cheerfully again. “I’m afraid we’ll need to get going.” She added. Lucy nodded and handed her book to her. Mavis shook her head. “No Lucy, you keep it as a gift.” Lucy brought the book back to her chest and thanked her. Mavis closed her eyes and gripped the stone in her hand, making it emit yet another glow. It lit up space around her and Zeref, then dimmed to nothingness. And the couple were levitating up, in a light coming from the sky. It was sort of like they were being abducted by aliens.

Everyone watched as Mavis’ feet slowly were raised off of the ground into a point. The two were slowly drifting upwards toward the sky in a white light, their shadow casting onto the grass below them. Zeref couldn’t take his eyes off of Erza. He knew that he was really harsh on her during the time she was underground and Zeref knew he had to do something. So he did. Zeref motioned towards the forest/jungle area and waved his hands. Mavis questioned his action but then got what Zeref was doing afterward. A big Darkle raced out of the forest and everyone was confused, surprised, and slightly scared. Was Zeref going to kill them? This Darkle looked a little different from the rest, a red image painted on it’s side. Then the striding animal slowed down a little. As it got closer, you could see something on it’s back. “Erza!” Yelled a man’s voice. Her eyes widened.

The person on the Darkle’s back was Jellal. He looked perfect and was healthier than he’d ever been. “Jellal?” Erza’s voice became a whisper. She hadn’t come to the full realization yet. The Darkle came to a stop and Jellal hopped off. He was as real as ever. Natsu and Lucy knew her story, so they just hung back and acted surprised. Everyone else carried on being confused.

Erza wrapped her arms around Jellal, squeezing the fabric of his shirt in the back. She was trying her best to hold in tears, but it just didn’t work. “Um, are we missing some part of the big picture here?” Asked Gajeel. “Because I’m pretty sure we just kicked that guy’s ass.” Lucy held her finger to her lips while replying. “It’s a long story.” Erza looked up from the embrace to where Zeref and Mavis were floating. But they weren’t there anymore. “Thank you.” She whispered.

Suddenly, a huge group of Darkles charged towards them. Only, this was different from Jellal’s Darkle. As they approached, black glowy specks flew off of their bodies, kind of like what happened when Mavis changed from a sphere to her human form. And then they saw them. Every single Darkle had transformed into a separate human, running freely towards them. Levy spotted her Mom among the crowd and ran to her, tears falling from her eyes. The moment Natsu turned around to look at Mavis and Zeref, he saw his Dad, standing there, wanting to wrap Natsu in his arms and tell him that he was back, that the curse was broken. That he could finally see his little boy again.

And Zeref smiled for the first time in 117 years.

~~~~~~~~~~

_Clunk._

The plank of wood smacked against the boarding part of the S.S. Fairy Tail. The air was cool and brisk that morning while the group was getting ready to part ways. No one knew exactly what they were going to do. Who was going and who was staying? Lucy still didn’t have an answer and the majority were confused. Natsu knew for a fact that he needed to bring Lucy back as the princess, but he didn’t want to take away her happiness with Levy and Wendy. It would be kind of dumb and wasteful if she didn’t come back with them, not to mention the whole kingdom would cause a ruckus when they found out. He could always just tell them he didn’t find her or that she was dead, but it didn’t feel right to lie. That was probably going to happen though.

Everyone had just finished loading some fruit and supplies for the journey onto the boat with Levy’s permission and now all of them were standing at the bottom of the entrance to the boat. Jellal had decided to go back to Fiore with Erza, and Gajeel wanted to stay for some reason. No one knew why but they didn’t want to ask. “Someone needs to stay here and help take care of the village.” Is all they got out of him.

Other than that, the rest of the crew were leaving. Igneel was already on the boat, making sure things were working well while Levy’s mom and the villagers were helping to clean up the mess of a fire, 10 years ago. Lucy, Levy, Wendy, and Gajeel faced the others to have their last conversation for a while. Maybe forever. Lucy squished her toes around in the wet sand, feeling a weird emotion. She didn’t know what it was because she hadn’t felt it ever.

“Well, this is it.” Levy started, filling in the silence. No one acknowledged her or said a word until a few minutes later. “You guys are pretty cool,” Cana said. “I’ll miss you,” Mirajane added to that. “Although I didn’t get everything I wanted to accomplish here in motion,” She eyed Lucy and Natsu. “I did enjoy it here. Thanks for adding some spice to this story.” She giggled a little. “I can not explain my gratitude any further to this island or to you Lucy for bringing back the person I care about most in the world,” Erza said. Gray and Juvia reflected on the past week and gave their final words, and then it was Natsu’s turn.

He didn’t say anything, just smiled. “Thanks.”

The people who were leaving got ready to board the boat while Levy and the others were walking towards the big cliff so that they could wave goodbye. Lucy was trailing slightly behind, watching her feet make footprints in the sand. Wendy was running towards the cliff, excited to get there first. Levy noticed the blonde-haired girl several feet away and put her hand on her shoulder. “Hey, are you okay?” Lucy nodded. “I just feel strange. Like there’s something I want but can’t have.” Levy knew immediately what Lucy meant. And why she felt it. Then she remembered something she should have said the prior day.

So all she said was “Go.” Lucy looked up at her, wondering what Levy meant. She had hope gleaming in her eyes. “Go on, get outta here.” Levy stopped Lucy and waved her hand as if she were shooting away a fly. “What?” “Be with Natsu.” She smiled.

“That’s what makes you happy.”

So Lucy did. She smiled at Levy and raced along the shoreline, back to the ship where Natsu was boarding. It was an all too familiar sight, a girl running along the shore, sand flying up behind her and water enveloping her ankles for a second at a time. Her hair flew behind her like a long blond ribbon and her white dress pulled itself close to the front of her body. She wanted this. Happiness. She wanted Natsu.

So she pulled herself into his arms and let her lips touch his.

That day, everyone left happily.

The day was complete when the rope let go of the beach.

And when Levy screamed from the cliff.

“Bring me back some blackberries Lu!”

 

The End


	21. Epilogue

In all, things drew out to how they were supposed to be.

Levy and Gajeel are now married and are running Gerneelia village in peace with Wendy in line. 

Erza and Jellal are the highest quality of ship transporters to Gerneelia with their own crew, and they are enjoying the S.S. Fairy Tail together in harmony. This was a prime need for the land of Fiore because how else was Levy supposed to pay for Juvia and Gray's wedding? (The favor was pushed a little too far)

Mirajane was promoted to the castle's librarian and Juvia is finally allowed to come and go as she pleases in there. When Levy finds her way to Fiore, she usually spends most of her time in there, reading as many stories as she wants. 

As for Natsu and Lucy, they went on to rule the kingdom of Fiore. 

 

And that's how a crew and 3 girls met one day. 

 

Then changed their world.

 

;)


End file.
